I think also it was due to industrial history. Rolls-Royce built inline engines. Bristol built radials. In the US, it was really only Allison that built inlines. Wright and Pratt & Whitney built radials and were good at it. Wartime exigency, you use the engines and technology you have, rather than trying to re-invent the wheel. Witness the RR Vulture and Napier Sabre developmental problems. You just develop the ones you have as much as you can, while concentrating on the next gen ie turbojet.