boltTLDR
Google's John Mueller suggests using country-code TLDs for international sites may be unnecessary and can complicate both site management and search engine comprehension.
In a Reddit discussion, John Mueller of Google questioned whether websites truly need country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) to expand internationally, cautioning that the approach complicates site architecture for both publishers and search engines. SEOFOMO News reports that Mueller warned the strategy makes "things harder on yourself" while simultaneously making it "harder for search engines to understand each of these sites."