This is the dial in our current late-90’s apartment (apologies for the limescale). It is gradated in Celsius

My kids like something in the mid-30’s, I like just under 40, my wife like closer to 45. A pretty decent range IMHO

I’ve never had this problem anywhere I live (Sweden and Japan) so I’m assuming it has to do with some kind of especially cheap fixtures?

They’ve been trying in Sweden by pushing paternal leave to make it so the males are just as likely to take time off as women so it’s more equitable, but there was a lot of pushback on “forcing men” to do it and not allowing for “individual choice” as to who takes the parental leave

In Japan they let kids go outside without supervision starting a really young age.

Yeah I live in Japan and my daughter started going on errands (“go get some milk/eggs”) alone at age 5. All kids are then expected to walk themselves to elementary school starting from the first week, there is no room for drop-offs from a car.