Sometimes, as they say, a cigar is just a cigar.
Electrical standardisation, even within the US, is a fairly recent thing. Even today, older cities have multiple skyscrapers that generate their own, unique form of electricity .... some even DC. And, no, there is not any 'normal' 120 available in these buildings, even today; I've had at least one service request from such a building.
Cross over to Europe, and the common use of 230v is even less established. In these instances, it was political (rather than commercial) considerations that obstructed any agreement. After all, it wasn't all that long ago that those little countries were happily invading each other. Why make life easier for the invader?
Just as important, America hasn't been "the" world leader all that long either. Companies like Siemens and AEG could, once upon a time, have every expectation that 'upstarts' like GE and Westinghouse would follow their lead.
If ignorance is bliss, the American consumer is often in ecstacy. The range of products in Japanese and European markets often is quite different from what is available to us here. Sometimes the difference cross the ocean, sometimes they don't. I can understand why folks might want to make a foreign appliance work here.
Getting back on topic, I do not accept that it is proper to split 120v circuits off of a 240v BRANCH circuit. I believe that's what panels are for. Yet, I cannot point to any particular line of code that spells this out.
