I don't know about this sweetness thing tbh
There's just an awful lot of sugar in US food in general. Like, added to normal food, it's a cultural thing. I barely notice it any more, but I did when I arrived. It's not a recent thing, if I'm out the country or Tangier Island or something, and a little old lady is making some class of a meal in exactly the same way she's made it for the last 70 years, there's still masses of sugar in it.
In the same way that French food tends to be quite buttery, it's just a thing that pervades.
Alternatively, Irish food is fierce stingy with sugar?