OK, as far as the styles I mentioned, those are different forms of more or less American Taekwondo. There is a third branch and they were started by one of many Lee brothers from Korea and brought over to the US in the '50s.
Yes, Taekwondo may be "inferior" to most other martial arts, but only if you look at it from a "I'm gonna KICK YOUR ASS" stance. Taekwondo isn't intended that way, any instructor that follow the guidelines at least will tell you that Taekwondo isn't about the fighting (although they do teach it, sparring is fun) but that it's about the ART of the techniques. Meaning, fundamentally, Taekwondo was never intended to get the "Wow, that guy can kick your pasty white ass into submission" reaction, it was intended to get the "Woah, look how cool those techniques look!" reaction.
Which of course is why Taekwondo isn't as popular as say ninjitsu. As a little anticlimax to this post, I am happy to say that Lafayette now has not only one, but TWO ninjitsu schools! And guess who's going to be signing his happy ass up? 10 years in taekwondo should give me a slight edge
[edit] apologies to FS, he fundamentally already said that, just much shorter (in regards to Taekwondo being an art form)