Couple things....

Firstly there was almost nothing but crap from Western developers on the NES/SMS era of systems. Some of that was because most of them were developing for PC, and those games often didn't translate well to console. Also, remember that a ton of US-based developers went out of business in the crash, leaving the industry in shambles. They recovered in the 16-bit era I feel.

Secondly it was developers like Acclaim and LJN which traditionally bought the big licenses in the West, and they were terrible developers. They treated the properties badly time after time. In Japan, developers like KEMCO made good games, and they happened to get the licenses there. We got stuck with LJN. I also don't think the Japanese developers were really all that interested in the licenses for the West. Plus one would assume that Acclaim and LJN, being Americans, used contacts to get the licenses.