Yeah, a lot of people just toss the pasta in bong boiling water and pull it out when it's soft. Sometimes they'll add oil to stop it from sticking (due to overcooking already soft pasta), and they're shocked when I tell them they need to add salt.

Most pasta in the US suggests to salt the water when you boil it, I don't think many Americans do. My mother didn't, at least.

This may be a result of the war on salt that came from heart disease concerns of the 80s/90s.

How many times have you had pasta in America?

Since I'm American, hundreds if not thousands of times. I've had it at home, at friends' houses, and restaurants. My parents aren't italian, just bog standard Americans.

You're right that store bought noodles don't have eggs, and that's likely due to the IPO definition of spaghetti (and other pastas) to only contain duram wheat semolina and water.

My point about eggs comes from recipes like this or this (first hits when searching "spaghetti pasta noodles recipe") that use trash flour and eggs. So if you're being "fancy" and making the pasta at home, you're likely to use eggs.

“al Dente”

Your typical American understands that phrase to mean "undercooked" or "crunchy." It really just means "firm," as in chewy instead of squishy. The fact that the default doneness in the US is soft instead of firm, which is the opposite in Italy (if they even let you order it overcooked), highlights this.

I think this is so the sauce sticks better, because Americans like a lot of sauce. Both Americans and Italians will agree that the secret to a good pasta dish is the sauce, but in Italy that means a handful of quality ingredients to complement the pasta (e.g. simmering a ragu for hours), whereas in the US it means adding a ton of processed crap to thicken it (cream, cheese, etc) and drown the pasta flavor out.