That's how sci-fi movies were. It wasn't a hard science fiction story. It was a sci-fi adventure.
It would be like complaining that Thanos speaks English.
So many stories, so little time.

By your logic, why didn’t the audience believe in 1968 that it wasn’t Earth all along
Melton1 Wanted for Pedophilia:
https://i.ibb.co/6cnPmJVr/IMG-0830.jpg
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Zjxk307CND0

Leave logic out of it and simply enjoy the movie for what it is.

I Shot an Arrow into the Air is more egregious, but a lot more fun

The astronauts knew it was Earth all along, but refused to admit it to themselves. When Taylor saw the Statue of Liberty he couldn't sustain his delusion any longer.

That's very true. And you know why? Because for some nutty reason Americans can't handle subtitles.
Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!

If it were being made for the first time today, people would think it was ridiculous.
No only fanboys would think it was ridiculous. Most would get the point of the film and not let it go completely over their heads.

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Also don't forget the landscape changed because of the war. No grass not wild life for many miles and the
humans
looked primitive. They could've been on any planet.
As of now, earth is the only planet with humans on it. He had absolutely
no
reason to believe he was absolutely
anywhere
else. There were also three species of apes, horses, and a cave full of artifacts that dated to around the time Taylor left. The funny thing about the horses is that the presence of horses is a regularly cited plot hole in Tim Burton's version because it doesn't take place on earth. Even if we accept the English language as a story-telling device, this is absurd. It would be easier to believe aliens built a replica of the statue of liberty by coincidence than everything else. This movie is seriously a product of it's time. If it were being made for the first time today, people would think it was ridiculous.

True!

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Back then all aliens in the movies spoke English.

What about the apes speaking English? That should have tipped him off.

Makes sense.

It's pieces scattered might create a "strange luminosity" during what would've been the full moon phase.

Whatever happened to the moon, anyway?
The theory is that the moon has we know it was destroyed by an Alpha-Omega bomb.

I thought it had no moons. Which is also forgotten by the end. Whatever happened to the moon, anyway? Is
SPACE: 1999
tied into this?

When they crash land they are the planet they're on has three moons.
Which is conveniently forgotten about by the ending.

Just a theory of course.
True but a logical one.

It was never explained in the movies, but in the TV series, the ship was caught in some kind of storm and some kind of emergency protocol kicked in returning the ship to Earth, though a thousand years in the future.
Now maybe something struck Taylors ship (we know there was some damage as Stewarts sleeping chamber was cracked) and the computer automatically set back to Earth.
Just a theory of course.
If those pen pushers up at city hall don't like it,well, they swivel on this middle digit!

The better question is how his ship could have landed back in Earth, was this ever explained in the movie/sequels?

Add to that travelling at near the speed of light for a further 12 months away (supposedly) from Earth, why would he think he was on Earth?
If those pen pushers up at city hall don't like it,well, they swivel on this middle digit!

As Taylor notes at the beginning of the film, they had been traveling out into space for six months, and space is a
big
place. The odds of them landing back where they started were, pun intended, astronomical.