Not at all. An
airway is an ATS route. They have been traditionally laid out based on ground-based navigational aids
You are right for the USA. They have a very uniform system of VOR-VOR routes, all properly worked out with the MEAs based on the highest of MORA, MRA, etc.
You can fly all over the USA with just VOR and ILS receivers. That's how I did my IR there
Europe works differently. The ATS route MEAs don't seem to be based on anything particular (base of CAS perhaps) and the routes themselves seem to be based on even less
Usually they are routed around airspace which the military grabbed first (but rarely use)