European capitalism destroying old American traditions and cultures just sounds wrong to your ears when you are so used to the narrative of McDonald’s and Hollywood taking over the world.
In Germany I think I saw a dedicated drinking fountain only once. There are of course fountains, but most of the time there is a sign on them saying "Kein Trinkwasser" ("no drinking water"). We have exceptionally good tap water and I think only very few Germans fear to drink it. I notice it every time I brush my teeth in another country, it just tastes bad. So they got us with another trick: Germans are just used to sparkling water.
That is a valuable lock-in lesson: Add an unimportant but prominent usage-detail to your product as long as your customers need it so when an alternative comes along they are just used to it and too lazy to switch. Works best when your customers are children.
The "no drinking water" signs have to do with health requirements for drinking water.
Water for firefighting, for example, has to be isolated from drinking water to prevent any risk of contamination. Due to how it is used, this water may have to be stored for very long periods of time and provides a breeding ground for all kinds of things you wouldn't want in your drinking water (e.g. legionella).
I'm fairly certain most (non-drinking) fountains use something like a semi-closed loop system where the same water just circulates through the fountain and fresh water is only used to replace any water lost to evaporation or spilling. This means the water is easily contaminated and therefore not suitable for drinking.
In some public restrooms (though this seems very rare), even the tap water is labelled as not safe for drinking. In these cases the tap water is likely not sufficiently isolated from the water tank for firefighting and therefore not safe despite coming from drinking water.
In Germany I think I saw a dedicated drinking fountain only once. There are of course fountains, but most of the time there is a sign on them saying "Kein Trinkwasser" ("no drinking water"). We have exceptionally good tap water and I think only very few Germans fear to drink it. I notice it every time I brush my teeth in another country, it just tastes bad. So they got us with another trick: Germans are just used to sparkling water.
That is a valuable lock-in lesson: Add an unimportant but prominent usage-detail to your product as long as your customers need it so when an alternative comes along they are just used to it and too lazy to switch. Works best when your customers are children.