Nobody in his right mind calls the european system the best.
But, the EASA only has to look for safety. The FAA has to gouvern the safety and promote aviation. A completely other mind set.
In the US I can rent a an R44 for 320 to 350 bucks, in Switzerland the same ships costs me 1000$ and more. The reason? They fly less, they have higher costs, the more it costs the less they fly, the more they have to ask for every hour.
Mecanics (sorry engineers) have pretty low wages here. It isn't the maintenace, that makes it more expensive, because that is everywhere the same.
Land on an airport and you have to pay, land off airport and you still have to pay. You need a off airport landing permit which you have to pay for, but no additional training is required. That's just making money on the back of the pilot.
Does Europe has less accidents per flight or per flight hour? I doubt it, because the pilots fly less and are therefore less current.
Once I had a problem with my CFI renewal procedure and the FAA guys were extremely helpfull and did everything to help me. That's how it should be.