You are making a lot of assumptions about who believes the US meets that description, which feels a bit ethnocentric to begin with.

This may come as a shock, but I don't necessarily expect the US to be bigger or better than anybody at anything, and never have. Especially not when compared to what is effectively the average European economy. If this wasn't coming from a Polish-focused news site I'd find it patronizing. As it is, it seems kinda needlessly self-deprecating.