This has been my experience in North America (Canada & USA). You are correct in your position that the free breakfast is still available outside this region, as
Hilton recently clarified that this perk is here to stay. This does change my valuation of Hilton Gold slightly in the sense that now if I stay outside North America I can be sure to get a free breakfast.
My late checkout experiences are based on the handful of times I've stayed at Hilton properties in North America and Australia. None of the location I stayed at offered more than a 1 PM late checkout with most offering a noon checkout (including Darwin). Perhaps I have not stayed at enough Hilton properties to say definitively, although I will point out that home-grown chains like Accor have an upper hand in this region in the sense that there are more options at various price ranges, and they do tend to treat their elites fairly well (even if the Accor points are boring).
-RooFlyer88