mrboilwash- I think everything you said is very true. I know they do that with haircare too, keeping up with perfume trends. Pantene is one that apparently tweaks the scent of their haircare as perfume trends change, and you often find long term users of their products upset when that happens.
With the American products, I do think some products just smell so *strong*, though. Palmolive and Ivory dish liquid are examples. The scents they updated to are so strong now, you can taste it on your dishes even after rinsing for an extra amount of time. I still have a little left of some Palmolive in the original scent, and it’s more mild smelling and I can’t taste it on my dishes after rinsing. For the most part, with American dish soap, I buy unscented now, unless I stop by the Polish market to get Ludwik. Some American “natural” brand scents also aren’t too bad.
Also I just received a package from makeupstore yesterday with raspberry scented bath & body products, and haircare, from Poland. It stood out to me as I was testing them out yesterday how much lighter the scents are than some American ones, like Bath & Body Works. Bath & Body Works gets copied a lot by other brands, and certain popular scents of theirs do as well (from around 2000, their lavender vanilla and eucalyptus spearmint scent profiles have been copied a lot across all kinds of products), and I just personally find the potency of the scents to just be too much..