Re question above: at least some jurisdictions in the US do limit you to automatic transmissions if you take your driving test with one. Wisconsin (at least ca. 1967) did so, and I had the impression it was similar in other adjacent/nearby states.

Re the US "love of automatic transmissions:"

With the advent of emission controls, manufacturers at least at first were forced to resort to rather lean mixtures to meet mandated hydrocarbon emission limits. If you "lug" the engine (load it down to too low an rpm) with a lean mixture, you get engine knock, which makes little holes in the head, blows out the head gaskets, and burns the rims off the valves.

Since you presumedly cannot lug the engine with an automatic transmission in a few places, notably California, for several years it was impossible to buy a new automobile with a standard/manual transmission. No new vehicles were certified to California emission requirements with manual transmissions for several years.

In other states, manufacturers "pushed" the automatic transmissions because it was easier to meet even the somewhat more generous emission limits without excessive warranty claims by reducing the number of manual xmissions "in the fleet."

With recent engines and transmissions, the notion that a standard transmission always gets better fuel economy is something of a myth. Standard transmissions are found most frequently in the smallest vehicles, and they get better economy because they're smaller, not necessarily because the standard transmission is "always better" than modern automatics. It still is possible to impose tighter control on mixture and ignition if an automatic is used, and by doing so - along with overdrive ratios and lockup devices - many automatics do pretty well when compared to manual ones in similar sized vehicles.

John