I think showing the feds do it should sway you pretty far away from your above position. If not, I'm curious what evidence could be provided that would.
They can also earn "credit hours", up to 24 hours of accrued time off by working ahead (an extra hour here and there, unpaid but becomes leave) and comp time (same, but no technical limit, becomes overtime pay if unused).
And there's now 12 weeks of paid maternity and paternity leave, which is better than most companies in the US.
Of course, the pay is lower which is why it's harder to keep technical talent. And as you move up the GS ranks it's a lot like moving up the officer ranks in the military, a shift from technical (at the lower levels) to managerial/leadership (at the higher levels). Which means there are effective caps on people who want to remain purely (or more purely) technical and avoid supervisory roles (outside of, perhaps, team or project leadership positions).
EDIT: Don't get me wrong. This situation works for me very well, but the average vacation situation in the US is abysmal.
The thing is there are no laws enforcing any time off in the US.
So what you get isn’t standardized or available across the board. Generally I haven’t found any that offer less than two weeks, but… I have absolutely worked places that give you the time off but penalize you socially or otherwise if you dare to take it.