Oh, well sure, if any contact with American culture makes a place the same, then almost everywhere is the same. Definitely Hawaii. Hawaii is basically a big tourist resort for Americans at this point.
As for money and status-seeking, that’s as old as agriculture, as is people who don’t money and status suffering.
Yep. But as a student of history around the world, it certainly used to be possible to travel to a new place. Imagine Persia for the Greeks or China for Marco Polo. The journey wasn’t impossible and the destination was completely different. That was true to some extent even in the US. The homogeneity of today is just staggering. Same bullshit everywhere and no variations really on the overplayed theme.