From the perspective of Australian or New Zealand English American varieties of English do feel different regionally. I think variations on regional level simply does not exist in Australia and is very limited in New Zealand. The English spoken in Melbourne is in general pretty identical to Broome, WA, or between the English spoken in Taranaki and Canterbury.
In Australia, rather than difference in accents according to regions the variation of accents are more due to socio-economic backgrounds (or less-PC wise, class), education, and immigration background. People who have attended prestigious secondary schools will sound more like the British, speaking with a RP accent.
In New Zealand there are slight variations. In the Southland region (around Invercargill) people will speak with a rhotic accent (the only rhotic accent in the country) as the legacy of 19th century Scottish migration. Canterbury seems to be more English RP but this is just my generalization. Auckland tends to have less NZ-specific slangs than Canterbury, and over there in conversations they will use "nope" for "no", while over here in Canterbury people will use the traditional British command tone "nnnnooo" you hear on BBC dramas or the children's show Teletubbies.
So from NZ's perspective, I think most will be able to sense variation between New York and Midwest.
The aussies are the worst about "the rine in spine falls minely on the pline."
from NZ's perspective, I think most will be able to sense variation between New York and Midwest.
Most Americans would also, if given a few moments of reflection (a lot of people never think about it). I make a habit of listening for dialects in conversation among Americans as well as Brits (the only other English speakers I hear a lot of on TV -- I'm addicted to British productions of classic literature). My Dutch friend of one day, in Eastern Canada at some sort of post-graduate consortium, had traversed Canada east to west. He had traveled a great distance in the US before arriving at his amazed conclusions about our citizenry being able to go a thousand miles (and more) without encountering language barriers. He hadn't been to the South, or the NE, yet, as I recall, where he would have found some dialects that are not as fluidly understood.
I have a relative who married a man from New Jersey and I never could understand more than one of four of his words. I got very tired of asking him to repeat almost every sentence and he never would try to enunciate so I spent a lot of time nodding and smiling while he talked. I asked him what we sounded like to him. He said, "You pronounce every syllable very clearly." YES! And why should that not become a habit? ???