The U.S. has a pretty big pile of rock gyms. Even a couple of small towns in the East Bay had them (although they've since closed). An increasing number of regular type gyms have a small bouldering wall. Yosemite sees a lot of climber traffic during most of the year, as does Joshua Tree and Mount Rainier and "the Gunks" and more. I'd be surprised if you could meet anyone in Colorado or Utah that didn't at least have a passing knowledge of climbing of some kind.

It's a pretty mainstream sport now.

But Honnold and others that push the boundaries of the sport are a special case that get a lot of attention even from other climbers. The NYTimes isn't that interested in plain ol' bouldering probably because anybody that's in reasonable physical condition who spends a few months training can pull a V3 somewhere. Hell, with modern equipment, 5.10a is approachable by novices in a lot of places.