Indubitably, Cupcake. I am entranced by the persuasiveness of your casuistry. Bill Bryson is also persuasive on the subject of American English. He believes that many old English words and phrases went to America with the Mayflower and later died out back in England but persisted in America. 'Gotten' would have been one of those words, I imagine. Over here 'obligated' because simplified to 'obliged' but remains 'obligate' in US. I am fascinated by the Scots and Ulster (non Gaelic) languages (Lallans and Ullans respectively) because they came from German, as did English, but moved in a different direction.
Anyway this is not a thread about linguistics, much as I love that subject, but about Manchester, which I also love. My US visitors were always knocked out by the beautiful greenery that surrounds Manchester, and said there was nothing like it in US, though they did not like the Manchester rain. Of course, the former is a direct result of the latter. Having lived in a number of coutries around the world myself, and visted many more, I think the UK has a wonderfully temperate climate, and rain has never stopped me going out and about. My philosophy is, there's no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing.