Might also be a case of envy and sour gapes, and not reflect all that well on the Europeans saying that.
This thread is full of people claiming Europeans are not boastful or self-promoting, which is pretty strange to me because the internet is full of Europeans boasting about how much better their countries allegedly are than the US about almost any subject you can think of. Healthcare, public transport, crime, politics, you name it. But you find one topic where US is unquestionably better than Europe (like rocketry), and all of a sudden it's a grave sin to boast about things, and the discussion turns into how much better Europe is at not being boastful.
I was in the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville a few weeks ago. We watched the Webb telescope presentation with a live comment in the planetary, and I could not believe how perfectly the presentation was done. Everything was absolutely flawless and I am almost sure that not a single person in Germany would be able to deliver a presentation on that level of perfection. It was not showmanship, it was just outstanding skill at doing a presentation, and I wish people in Europe would be better trained in doing this.
This thread is full of people claiming Europeans are not boastful or self-promoting, which is pretty strange to me because the internet is full of Europeans boasting about how much better their countries allegedly are than the US about almost any subject you can think of. Healthcare, public transport, crime, politics, you name it. But you find one topic where US is unquestionably better than Europe (like rocketry), and all of a sudden it's a grave sin to boast about things, and the discussion turns into how much better Europe is at not being boastful.