I also think that for Western games, many soundtracks were treated akin to film and television score: as musical cues, etc.
So for small, 45-second "variation on the main theme" tracks that exist, they don't get published. But in Japan they do. Recurring motifs of all shapes and sizes get their time in the spotlight, but in American soundtracks we tend to just get the big main version, and not all the tiny variances.
We also tend not to get music that's *too* ambient, doesn't strike enough of a chord that the publisher thinks it's worth publishing. The same has been true of Western film soundtracks (not as egregiously, but certainly it happens!).
But ultimately, even Japanese soundtracks are rarely *100% complete*. Compare the published soundtracks of any 8bit, 16bit, or 32bit RPG with a gamerip of all the audio (or from an in-game soundtest) and things will be missed. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it true that when Capcom made up for the laughably incomplete Breath of Fire III OST (one disc) with the *three disc* version found in the BoF box set ... even THAT three disc set is missing a few songs?
(I could be wrong, but I swear someone told me that...)
Okay, those are my two cents.
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