Just a comment from someone living around Köln, those are not true kölsch beers since they cannot see the Kölner Dom from their brewery.

I find it quite fascinating that americans like kölsch. The first time, and only time, I saw kölsch outside of Germany was in Mountain View at some beer auction style tap bar in 2016. It was quite popular since it had a high price. I might assume it was due to the similarity with local/large batch beer.