Crappy insulation is the norm here in Australia as well, which is more of a problem down south where it gets cold in winter. I used to work with a Scot who highlighted the issue, saying that in a Scottish house, the insulation was good enough that you could basically heat a room with a candle.
I once asked him if there were any wooden houses in Scotland, he replied "Yes, we keep our lawnmowers in them".
There's another historical difference between Scotland and the US here: the US has a near-unlimited supply of wood, while Scotland was mostly bare of trees by the 18th century.
Much cheaper to build walls from local stone and save the imported wood for the floors and roofs.
> I once asked him if there were any wooden houses in Scotland, he replied "Yes, we keep our lawnmowers in them".
Austro-hungarian empire outlawed wooden houses in the early 19th century. Hence we still don't have any, and if you live in a wooden house[1], you are considered to not have been able to afford a proper house and thus looked down upon.
[1] becoming common with drywall construction methods. Particularly because it's cheap and fast.
I once asked him if there were any wooden houses in Scotland, he replied "Yes, we keep our lawnmowers in them".