Having spent sufficent time running around the inside and outside waters of washington and Alaska for the better part of a half a century I will be so bold as to suggest that the public has voted!
Go to the most remote areas and you will see more Yamahas than all US brands combined. There are also lots of Suzuki's. The folks in out of the way places where you have to rely on yourself and nobody else tend to purchase the equipment that can get you back to the starting point. Unfortunatly that doesn't seem to include outboard motors of American manufacture.
OMC once rated at or near the top was in dire straits in the early seventies and managed to struggle back but they had less competition from Yamaha then I wish them well I have fond memories of years of fishing duck hunting clamming and even big game hunting and trapping that were propeled by outboards made right here at home.
Actually I' m not really sure where the so called imports are made There is one hellof a big Honda small motors plant in Kentucky and I have been told Yamaha is in Mexico. Does any one know for sure.