The point about the French in North America is that they were existing relatively cut off from France from the end of the 18th century (both in Canada and Louisiana), so I'd have thought that was exactly the kind of situation where the instrument would have been likely to survive as a living tradition.

I can't believe in climate as a reason for the pipes not surviving in the New World - given that over in the Old World bagpipes of one sort or another have been part of the tradition of countries all the way from Ireland as far as the Middle East, and even further. Fashion, and the arrival of instruments that were easier to learn to play are more likely reasons.