I see a lot of people can not have a conversation about anime history or even localization history without acting like toddlers about it. Must be a day that ends in Y I guess.
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There's a lot that can be discussed about that history, and whether localizations are inherently xenophobic or what not . But let's not pretend this is a US-centric thing like I keep seeing some people doing on here.
Also America is far from the only country to ever censor anime for the television standards. Germany's infamous censorship of Naruto is legendary for reasons lol.
This is just one example, but you can read about things like the extensive changes and renaming of characters in Italy's original Sailor Moon dub here. There's a lot of these things you can find out there if you bother to actually learn about them.
Also, it's been this way since before most of us were born. Both major and indepdent studios were licensing Toei theatrical features in the 60s and dubbing them. Astro Boys's theme song got lyrics in Japan because of the one made for the US version that aired on NBC.
Like no one is saying you have to love this stuff, which seems to be something a lot of people are misinterpreting about that piece on Macek. But it's part of the history for better or worse and localizations are not some unique thing. It happens around the world for a variety of reasons.
Just a quick example of how this is even handled in Japan. I remember reading in either Time or Newsweek about the advertising campaign and changes for the Japanese release of Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor with focusing on the love story more and censoring some of the dialog in the subtitles as well.
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https://wikimoon.org/index.php/Sailor_Moon_in_Italy