> I don't think that most people who have had pizza from the top US pizza chains and have had a more "authentic" Italian pizza have trouble distinguishing the two.
That ain't the comparison being made, though. American pizza doesn't stop at Pizza Hut or Domino's. It includes the hole-in-the-wall pizza parlor with generic boxes and the ever-so-creative name of "New York Pizza". It includes the boutique shop with a proper stone oven and the thin crusts and "traditional" ingredients you'd expect from an "authentically-Italian" pizza. It includes hip vegan pizzas with cauliflower crusts. It includes pizza served alongside - or even incorporating - curry or kebab (side note: if you haven't had butter chicken pizza, stop what you're doing right now and find some). Hell, it even includes the "Bahn Mi'zza" I had for dinner a while back.
There are, in all, 70,000+ pizza restaurants in the United States, and that's just the ones that focus specifically on pizza - i.e. not including "Italian" restaurants as a whole, and not including restaurants that serve pizza as one component of a broader non-pizza-focused menu. All said and done, you've likely got more than a hundred thousand restaurants each putting their own spin - subtle or drastic, intentional or accidental - on the phrase "American pizza". That's in the ballpark of a 10:1 ratio of places serving pizza to incorporated cities/towns/villages/boroughs in the United States.
Point being, American pizza tastes - and thus the restaurants catering to those tastes - are so varied that "American pizza" v. "Italian pizza" ain't exactly a useful comparison. Same with Italian tastes, for that matter; not all Italian pizzas are the Neapolitan ones you're describing (prime example: Roman and Sicilian pizzas both feature thick crusts). Even regional comparisons are fraught with peril, but that'd be at least closer. Pizza is, fundamentally, a canvas begging for a painter to express one's creative vision upon it, be that a celebration of tradition or an exploration of new tastes.
That ain't the comparison being made, though. American pizza doesn't stop at Pizza Hut or Domino's. It includes the hole-in-the-wall pizza parlor with generic boxes and the ever-so-creative name of "New York Pizza". It includes the boutique shop with a proper stone oven and the thin crusts and "traditional" ingredients you'd expect from an "authentically-Italian" pizza. It includes hip vegan pizzas with cauliflower crusts. It includes pizza served alongside - or even incorporating - curry or kebab (side note: if you haven't had butter chicken pizza, stop what you're doing right now and find some). Hell, it even includes the "Bahn Mi'zza" I had for dinner a while back.
There are, in all, 70,000+ pizza restaurants in the United States, and that's just the ones that focus specifically on pizza - i.e. not including "Italian" restaurants as a whole, and not including restaurants that serve pizza as one component of a broader non-pizza-focused menu. All said and done, you've likely got more than a hundred thousand restaurants each putting their own spin - subtle or drastic, intentional or accidental - on the phrase "American pizza". That's in the ballpark of a 10:1 ratio of places serving pizza to incorporated cities/towns/villages/boroughs in the United States.
Point being, American pizza tastes - and thus the restaurants catering to those tastes - are so varied that "American pizza" v. "Italian pizza" ain't exactly a useful comparison. Same with Italian tastes, for that matter; not all Italian pizzas are the Neapolitan ones you're describing (prime example: Roman and Sicilian pizzas both feature thick crusts). Even regional comparisons are fraught with peril, but that'd be at least closer. Pizza is, fundamentally, a canvas begging for a painter to express one's creative vision upon it, be that a celebration of tradition or an exploration of new tastes.