That was the style at the time. There were a handful of shows that came over to the US from the UK - The Office, Coupling, IT Crowd - but only The Office took off, and really only took off once it found it's own voice for American audiences. In many cases, they were shoot-for-shoot remakes with American actors and some modifications (Jim instead of Tim, Pam instead of Dawn), but this one is down to the credits identical, even bringing Moss over.

I think there is room for British comedies in the US, as long as they're open to adaptation. David Brent was a terrible boss and awful person, but Michael Scott had to at least be a good salesman to be believable as middle management. Little differences like that made the show work.

I think they probably realized that the success of the series were due to the characters, and not so much the writing. So if its going to live/die based on the audiences response to the characters then why spend time working on the script?

And I have to say, this episode of the US IT Crowd just wasn't the same for me. This version is quirky and forgettable. The cast of the UK version is _so_ good that it elevates it to a hilarious classic.