The idea of registering with your local municipality is downright alien in the United States. At best, you're required to eventually update your drivers license when you switch states, which (depending on the state) is the equivalent of "maybe" updating your license and vehicle registration whenever you eventually get around to it.
Compare that against moving between, say, Switzerland and Poland (or any other combination of Schengen member countries).
Exchanging it is a small formality in most cases, but you need to do it.
Compare this with the US, where if I want to give a proof of address for a phone contract, or a car lease, or anything else. In the US, I need to go to a private, for profit organisation who will send me some mail, and then by receiving this mail I 'prove' that I live at this address. No civilian oversight, in fact they can sell that data to whoever they want
With the Swiss (or German) system, you get a proof of address when you register at your local center. They're also the ones who handle things like marriage certificates, death certificates, etc. And then if they do something with the data that you're unhappy with, you vote in new laws saying what is and isn't acceptable.
One of the reasons for not accepting us licenses is that the requirements for getting one are laughable over there
The difference is that it's actually enforced in Switzerland, and depending on which country you emigrate in from, you can also be forced to retake your drivers test if you wait long enough (which is something of a less-discussed issue in the expat community).
My US state would give the most authoritarian parts of Europe a run for their money when it comes to blind worship of and adherence to rules for the sake of rules and on paper you must obtain a license as soon as you become a resident with no grace period. In practice they just want you to drive with a valid license from any state. No part of government really cares about you getting a state license from this state any more than they care about any other law that mostly gets used for power of arbitrary enforcement.
I'm surprised that the other commenters make it sound less definitive. In my experience, Swiss authorities are extremely strict when it comes to any sort of driving infraction, so the default expectation should be that you will get fined.
If you cross the borders, you either are lucky and pass or when stopped, driver's license is always inspected. In that case expect trouble.
Really not worth the risk.
