That's not exclusive to America. Pencil pushers are dumb universally. I remember when the first aftermarket third brake lights started appearing on the market early nineties over here the lawmakers came up with a rule that there have to be two "third" brake lights and they have to be on the rear window, at least 15" apart or something like that. So brainless officials not understanding the actual effect of the third brake light (to be visible through at least one car between the seats to give more cars more reaction time) did not make any sense to them.
Same goes with rear fog lights - some idiot required the rear fog light to be positioned off center to the left to some amount. So all the cars with a factory mounted center fog light were illegal.