alt Hacker NewsOne reason could also be that the US woodworking culture treats a table saw as an essential tool (especially the basic table saw, without a sliding table), while elsewhere track saws are used more, it seems.
If you run commercial production, then you do need a table saw (but one with a sliding table!), but for hobby work you might as well spend some time for track saw setups and be much safer.
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Table saws are very common in Europe in hobby circles as well. If you take woodworking in school you'll learn to use it along with other tools. Also, you usually build the sliding table and other jigs yourself using the tracks on every table saw. They're called T-tracks, there's a couple different common widths.
I think you're probably right.
I have an older Delta table saw and recently decided to sell it because a miter saw + track saw + some other tools you need anyhow does nearly everything a table saw would do, but uses space way more efficiently.
They're very different tools, and neither is inherently safe. You can absolutely have kickback-like issues with a track saw if you're not careful when making plunge cuts, for instance.
A track saw is more convenient and arguably safer when breaking down a huge piece of plywood. After that it's no table saw replacement. You can't easily do repeated cuts of identical stuff width, you can't work on small parts, you can't make most of the common jigs, you can't do dadoes or box joints, etc.