The early localization of anime wrote out a lot of Japanese culture because they wanted to target children and felt like they wouldn't understand the references to Japanese culture. It just led to some funny jokes in the future. Sometimes writing out the culture too much makes the show even more confusing. Especially nowadays that more people are aware of what anime is and the Japanese things it could bring. Anime is part of a cultural exchange, so I feel it is best to keep the culture in it.
I've noticed that Digimon had
tried to avoid mentioning the kids were from Japan to the point of giving the kids nicknames (although they'd still show the full name in the introduction. "Yagami" was changed to "Kamiya" for some odd reason, but whatever). But when Tai returned to Japan in episode 21, they had no choice but to admit it was Japan, but they still weren't very clear as to
how different it was from America. Even in the Frankenstein'd film they weren't very clear about it, and Japan's vision of America is a bit
odd in how they presented it (it's not
completely inaccurate, but it's a bit weird). Still, in a way (gag script aside), Digimon was more faithful compared to other dubs of the time because of that, and they also didn't treat the audience like morons in that they would translate the close-ups of written kanji into English and not replace them with smudges or scribbles. (Looking at you, Kahn.)
I think DiC's Sailor Moon was the only other dub back then to show they were in Japan (even if they didn't explicitly say "Japan") to the point they left written kanji in, other dubs tried to avoid the Japanese origins when they could. It's a dirty trick to the impressionable mind to try to erase another culture to make it more American to appeal to the parents, but the memes that came from it are really wholesome, so I'm not mad about it like the purists are.