I think that this is at least partially attributable to the average understanding of English in those countries. When you are watching a movie with subtitles, but have absolutely no idea what is being said in the movie because the spoken language is unknown to you, it can be very distracting, because you are missing a certain amount of context. I believe an above-average amount of Dutch people is at least capable of comprehending basic English speech, which puts the movie's subtitles into context. In countries where English isn't as wide-spread, this is more problematic, which is why dubbing is more effective there. Similarly, even in the Netherlands movies which target family audiences are often shown dubbed by default in movie theatres, because the subtitles are just not as effective even if the children that are watching the movie can read them.
I'd guess it's the opposite: average understanding of english is lower _because_ the content is all translated.
Also, I do not know about germany/france/spain, but italian movies have basically always been dubbed, in the sense that italian actors were dubbed by other italian actors.
