Second rate treatment?
First, it's not shocking that they have released Cortana in the US first. The majority of Microsoft is US English speaking, after all. Second, yeah, sorry, it takes time for language translation, regionalization of services/recommendations, news, etc.
You act like they don't give a **** as opposed to 'this takes time' to do (and do it right). So they don't want to release a half-baked Cortana experience to the world due to not wanting to be judged on it.
Even Microsoft Stores, there are like a 100 across the US. Most people here do not have access to them either. Once again, they are testing markets. You know what would be worse? Opening thousands of stores only to have them close.
Microsoft is moving cautiously these days. I do not disagree with that policy. They are more interested in getting it right, then just releasing something out there. As a result, things take longer, but when you are in distant third, you cannot afford to make big mistakes.