Work visa to permanent residence to citizenship is how most immigrants do that. Family immigration is the only thing that's easier, but, of course, it requires a relative to sponsor - which most potential immigrants do not have.

That is true. USA has rules that prefer low skilled immigration, preferably family based, and forces even the high skilled immigration visas to be broad enough to not really prefer high skilled immigrants. Further, USA discriminates based on national origin.

Canada has policies that prefer high skilled immigrants coming for employment, and does not discriminate on where they come from.

So yeah, USA has more difficult for immigrants from big countries who want to contribute with their skills, while Canada welcomes those.

Japan's system seems like Canada's, and basically the opposite of the US's: high-skill professionals easily get 5-year work visas, and can apply for permanent residence (PR) after 1 or 3 years depending on points. Having family members in the country, however, is worthless unless you marry a Japanese national.

Honestly, I don't see why a country would prefer people to bring in all their distant cousins, rather than a bunch of highly skilled professionals who contribute a lot to the economy.