Consumer testing magazines routinely panned them. There were no high performing detergents that were not also high sudsers.  Tumbler washers were rated as poor in washing ability, mainly for the small tubs and lack of good, low sudsing detergents. It was interesting that when washer dryer combinations came on the scene, their larger tubs contributed to improved washing performance ratings as did the larger, non-tilted tubs in the redesigned Westinghouse washers with the two tub vanes.

American users of washing machines were long habituated to wringer washers with agitators and that is what they wanted in an automatic. Bendix had tied up the important patent rights to the tumbler washer (as well as the combination washer-dryer). Jon Charles posted years ago about how much Westinghouse had to pay Bendix through the nose and out the other end for the right to use the "assured rinse" or spray rinse to kill suds after the wash drain and I am not sure if the sequence of spins after each rinse was a patented Bendix exclusive or not, but Westinghouse did not have it until their machines were based on European design elements decades later when they became European owned and even then, the rinse sequence was changed from spray, spin, deep rinse, deep rinse, spin to spray, deep, spin, deep, spin, deep, spin.

I think that in front loaders, Americans just saw a smaller tub that required bending to load, associated it with the older generation machines that had to be bolted through the floor joists and opted for top loaders where they could have lots of suds which, in the days of soap, indicated that you were getting better cleaning.