I fully agree with your general point, but in the US I've found calculus to be much more dominant than linear algebra. I went to an "elite" high school that still does not offer any course in linear algebra, despite having enough juniors in AP calc to fill a room. Senior year options for those students are AP stats or multivariable calc. At my college, everyone was (and still is) required to take through multivariable calculus, but there's no such requirement for linear algebra.

I have some appreciation for calculus now but I really did not enjoy it much in high school or even in college. It turned me away from learning more math for some time which is unfortunate - linear algebra isn't my favorite either but I liked that much more off the bat, so I wish I had some exposure to it in high school. Then again, maybe the high school teaching style is what made me dislike calc to begin with.