I have been using contactless payments for years here, and the 4 other EU countries I have been in this year, all accepted contactless. You may not have been able to use a US contactless card, but people do use it. It is also worth noting that each country in Europe has a different culture and history, which inform the choices people make with banks, and particularly credit cards.

Scale - sure, the US is larger than any of the EU countries population wise - but not sure how that is "innovation".

Blockchain - work on blockchain tech is global - American companies even export the R&D to EU countries ;)

Products + Payments - there is nothing ground breaking in the US, that is not in the rest of the world