From what I remember (it's been a while), the design of most FAA NDB approaches also make them easier to fly than the UK ones (don't know about rest of Europe). Most of the time, you fly over the beacon, go outbound for 10 miles (plenty of time to get the track right), then do a procedure turn comprising of a 45 deg turn outbound and 180 back to intercept at 45 inbound. The final intercept is, IMHO, a lot easier than intercepting after a 180+ turn on a lot of UK NDB approaches. And because they don't involve a hold, you have less opportunities to screw up (NDB hold on a windy day on one engine, yuk...).
That said, there are some evil NDB approaches in the US too. Like Charlie Zulu, i remember one (at Tracy, California, across the bay from San Francisco) where the missed approach point for the hold is the intersection of two VORs. IR students in the area celebrated for weeks when the beacon became U/S. There are no other NDB approaches in the area!
P