Okay DC, what you're saying is that in the US long radial strips of density/ retail/ businesses follow along main arteries, sided by residentials.
whereas in Europe they cluster around nodes (former villages and towns swallowed by the larger city):
where suburbs meet a centre:
So far so right imo.
However, European cities will
also have the strips of density/ retail/ businesses along the main arteries also, on top of the clustering nodes.
Helsinki's land use shows both the nodes as well as the arterial strips
You can see one such example at top left that connects Ruskeasuo to Kuappatori 6km away.
I used to live in Helsinki and this is a main artery lined like this becoming the main drag for 5 other 'nodes' / city districts. It eventually becomes a highway as it leaves the city entirely
but will ultimately end as the main street of the city of Tampere, 180km away.
The street passes through Helsinki's other districts
Also look again at Helsinki's centre. This may at first look like typical city centre density, but it's actually the same pattern. The main street with all the activity is at top,
and is sided by residentials one block in - they just aren't recognisable lowrise detached houses, but apartment blocks.
main street at right
The city centres will actually have a great deal of residentials in patchwork blocks from the arteries, just they resemble the businesses in built form and start to look
the same morass. (This is the more continental, less Nordic Copenhagen btw)
I think you're right that there is a marked difference in look, especially with the sharper delineation in the US between residential and business (whereas in Europe they're the
same bulk or share the same building), and added to by the dead straight streets. HOWEVER the
format in Europe is not dissimilar. It also has long streets sided with business and retail,
stretching for miles, cutting through residential. It's wrong to say Northern Europe doesn't have this, as it's natural that major arteries will attract business the world over.