European bakers don't use high gluten flour because it is more expensive. The European flour I buy is about $1.20 per 1 Kg package. I think that flour may be subsidized by the EU.

US artisan bakers tend to use the high gluten flours like King Arthur bread flour. It is unbleached and results in wonderful bread.

I live in the US for four or five months a year and I bake with King Arthur flour (King Arthur sells organic flour, but I use their standard flour). The rest of the year I live outside the US and bake with European flour, which as noted has lower gluten.

In both cases I can make great bread (using sourdough or baker's yeast). But with King Arthur bread flour I can bake bread that has a higher water content (70% vs 60 percent for European flour). The higher water content means longer shelf life (I slice the bread after baking and freeze it so this is not an issue). Higher water content also means better whole wheat bread, but is a whole complex topic by itself.

I grew up eating San Francisco sourdough and later Northern California artisan bread from bakeries like Acme before I became a baker. I like the flavor of King Arthur bread flour somewhat more than the European flour, although there is not a big difference.

Later...

One of the local stores got in some Goldmedal Bread flour.

I've been baking bread with the usual European all purpose flour. I just made two loaves of sourdough bread with the Goldmedal flour. While Goldmedal is not as good as King Arthur flour, for the type of bread I make it is better than the European all purpose flour.