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Why is it in this country - and elsewhere in europe it has to be said -
that
we really don't like building platforms that are level with the train
floor?
There's always a step up. This is understandable on curved platforms where
the gap would be an issue, but on dead straight ones there is no excuse
yet
they're still lower. Only recently have we started building them level.
Even
the 1960s Victoria line tube suffers from platforms lower than the train
floor
other than on short sections where LU has raised them.

At least in the UK we don't *usually* have to have a little set of steps on
the platform by each door, or a mini-step ladder built into each doorway on
the train; I saw plenty of instances of the latter on Michael Portillo's
Great American Railroad Journeys programmes.

You'd think it would be fairly obvious from the early days of railways:
decide on a standard floor height above the tracks for all trains, and built
all platforms at that height +/- a small tolerance to allow for the problem
of curved platforms. Certainly putting platforms at rail level is never
going to be right! Especially now rail companies need to cater for people in
wheelchairs, who tended to get forgotten about in bygone days.