It does seem as though a wave is building in pool with MR as the driving force. I know on a personal level I have bought a DAZN yearly subscription the past two years, solely because of the MR quality events. I have also purchased a few Omega and accustats PPV's, even though I PPV is my pet peeve and I wish it would die the death of a thousand cuts.
Like many, I hope America is not swamped by this building wave. I believe (and it is my opinion) that our top 5 can compete on any given day with anyone. Notice I said COMPETE. The US guys have taken some big scalps recently, whether in money matches or in recent tournaments. The downer is that I don't see a plethora of 20-25 year old putting themselves into a position to one day have the torch passed from Shane, Sky, Justin, Billy, etc.
I am not in the loop when it comes to amateur pool, so maybe there are superstars in waiting there and I just don't know about them. OUr youth just have so many choices to occupy their free time: Pee wee football, little league baseball, ODP soccer, travel softball, robotics camp, boy scouts, E-sports, AAU basketball, that's before you even consider school sports.
I know I am only restating what has been said here ad nauseum concerning getting youngsters involved, but it will continue to be a huge roadblock to sustained success against other countries. SVB may be a generational talent, but we need several more in his league coming up behind him.
It can be argued that pool is a global sport and the Asian and European markets can sustain it, and maybe you would be right. I don't know if pool needs Americans to be dominant in order to be successful, but with our disposable income and our thirst for entertainment, I would be willing to bet that Match Room would prefer that America is producing competitive players.
Last I checked, 7 out of the top 10 biggest selling jerseys in MLB were Americans, 10 out of 10 in the NFL, and 10 out of 10 NBA, and 8 out of the top 10 most popular PGA golfers are Americans. My point being that American fans (casual fans, not us die hards who would promote Efren to Sainthood) want Americans to get behind and cheer for.