Indeed - in California, plates stay with the car. The exception is personalized license plates, which are still registered to the car, but can be removed and transferred when the car is sold or otherwise disposed of.
I can’t speak for all Europeans but I for one find the US plates much more attractive than the European ones. Ours are boring. Very boring. Yours are cool.
The “plate with owner” vs. “plate with car” thing is probably a wash. As observed, there’s paperwork with a car sale either way, as the DMV (or similar entity) needs to know who owns a vehicle. And there are advantages / disadvantages to both. Note that there are sometimes vanity plates that the owner probably DOESN’T want to keep - a reasonable percentage of them refer to the car itself. “MYVETTE” is going to look awfully silly on the minivan the guy bought because he had to sell the corvette to buy a family car. Plate with car may be nicer for somebody buying a used car without a trade, or a new one that the dealer has registered already. Plate with owner has an advantage if you get in a wreck and your car is totaled - you rescue the license plate from the wreck, and it goes on the new car. Etc.
this is probably a “grass is greener on the other side of the fence” thing.
Many people in the UK have personalised No plates. The shape, size, colour and spacing of the letters and numbers are strictly controlled, but there are many variants that spell out names. Look in any motoring magazine and there are pages of them for sale. Some are very expensive too - a well known DJ who was at the start of Radio 1 has RAD 101 for example. With the advent of ANPR, the cops have started to enforce the rules quite strictly.
It is perfectly possible (albeit an extra expense) to retain the same plates when you swap vehicles. As far as style is concerned <insert gallic shrug here> who really cares?
it depends on the specific car. The Ford Fusion has enough space to fit a European style number plate on the rear (which it should, because it’s going to be sold there as the Mondeo) but the filler panel on which the plate mounts is different. NA Fusions don’t have the mounting holes for an EU plate, and vice versa for the Mondeo.
Where are you getting this from?
This is probably just one of those perception things where the things you have at home seem right and proper and John Q foreigner does it all stupid.
The reason I say this is because I have the exact opposite perception to you. UK plates look sensible, optimally readable and highly standardised to me. US plates look weird with their tall fonts, wacky colours and pictures. I mean, PICTURES?
Especially since there are more and more special plates from more and more states that are ridiculously colorful.
Some (most?) European countries do issue plates in the North American dimensions for the various eccentrics who like old American cars over there. Examples:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/a202b631ee9ca8203d42332bf3987870.jpeg
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/blazer.jpg
It very much varies from state to state. Some are “plates follow the car” states and some are “plates follow the driver” ones. I think they’re actually pretty close to half and half.
And they’ve been reflective forever. I have some plates from '71 and they reflect just like a modern one does. Laser didn’t come out until circa 1990 or so. And does not need a “reflective” surface. It’ll work off a bumper, grill, etc…
Err…can someone point to me what exactly anybody should even have an opinion about this “issue”?
After checking, American plates apparently are shorter and more “squarish”. I’m puzzled that anybody would care about this, apart maybe from the radar-makers, assuming it makes a difference.
This has to be one of the most pointless debate I’ve seen on this board. :dubious:
snobbery has caused any number of debates about pointless things 
there are people who honestly believe that European cars are universally “better” simply because they aren’t sold in the US. I’ve driven a bunch of those cars, and I can say that the good European cars are already sold here. The ones which aren’t are cheap pieces of shit.
FWIW, there’s a British-themed pub in my Ohio town that has one of the black London taxis parked out front. It has what appears to be a completely legitimate, valid Ohio license plate in the European format, complete with (IIRC) registration stickers and all. I honestly don’t know if it ever leaves its parking spot; I do know I’ve never SEEN it move, but I guess it still needs a license plate (or else it has a very clever pseudo-plate).
So possibly PR isn’t the only US jurisdiction issuing the plates.
Also, not at all surprised to see the current Ohio plates listed as an example of “ugly license plates”. Not a fan of 'em at all myself, though, on the other hand, I don’t really care; the 1990s/2000s trend of cutesy license plates as marketing for the state struck me as a bit silly.
Yes, but as I understand it these were plates that are issued to vehicles in the normal way, by the government, but just happened to spell out something that was meaningful and cool to someone (not necessarily to the person whose car it was issued to). If you were lucky enough to be issued with such a plate, you can then try to sell it (and transfer the relevant licensing) to someone who has money to spare, and thinks it is cool.
The final letter cluster on my (U.K.) car’s number plate happens to be KAR. If I could be bothered, it is possible that I could make a few bob by selling it to someone who has difficulty with remembering what the thing in their garage, with the wheels, actually is.
This is quite different from what happens in some (maybe all, I don’t know) U.S. states, where, when you obtain registration from the state you can, for an additional fee, order plates whose registration “number” (it may actually be all letters) says whatever you fancy (provided it is within certain legally mandated parameters of length and good taste, and provided nobody else already has that “number”, of course).
I can say that you’ve nailed what it takes to get a “vanity” plate here. It has to be unique and can’t be obscene, but a small fee and a bit longer wait time and it’s yours.
Among some car enthusiasts in the US, the issue of front license plates has been the subject of argument because (likely due to the larger, or rather more rectangular size of the plates here) they tend to ruin the lines of a car (this was an especially bad problem with the Mazda RX8 and the Pontiac Solstice).
And, of course, there’s also the massive list most states have of custom plate options on top of basic personalization. For instance, here’s the main page of options in New York. I’ve never had any desire for a personalized or other special plate, but I could easily pick from 10 NASCAR plates, the Knicks, Mets, Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers, all three NY NHL teams, all three NY NFL teams, various causes, and plates for all sorts of areas in New York. There’s also lots of colleges and universities (including some that aren’t in NY) and various organizations. There’s a whole lot of various military-related plates as well. Some of those require proof of affiliation but anyone could go and get, say, a Yankees plate and then further personalize it.
Heh heh. If you had to drive a carload of young children over typical American-family-vacation distances, you would soon come to appreciate the appeal of having visually distinctive state license plates. 
Depending on where you are, you can play that game with other countries as well. Around this part of New York we mostly get Quebec and some Ontario plates. In New Mexico I mostly saw Chihuahua plates with a few Sonora ones mixed in. And of course, Canada and Mexico use the exact same plate design as the US.