team names. The thought was they'd have a better chance to grow the product in US markets if they localized the branding and intentionally made it less European.

In short, the whole strategy failed. Americans who didn't care about soccer still didn't care about soccer when it was Americanized, and the ones who actually did care about soccer got turned off by the MLS-isms. Around the early 2000s the league started to swing back the other way. They embraced more of the global standards for gameplay, branding, etc., and started to gain more traction as a result.

I actually agree with you that the European naming is a little overboard. We don't need every team to be a "United" or "Inter" or "FC". But, it is what it is at this point. I'll take that over the stupid stuff we got in the 90s like "Kansas City Wiz" or "San Jose Clash".