Hitch hiking implies you have no ride of your own. So no, America wasn't hitch hiking for decades. They did for 9 years though while working on building their own new rides. Anything prior to that isn't hitch hiking anymore than carpooling is hitch hiking. There's a vast difference between playing friendly and using more than your own ride, and having no option but someone else's ride.

Not to mention how you imply that we only used rides from them until dragon came online. We still send astronauts up on soyuz despite having dragon. It's just not hitch hiking which you either seem to have accidentally admitted or just were unaware America still uses soyuz.