A friend's mid 90s Bianchi (TSX tubes) has such a little flag and even the low budget house brand (italian made) of a big local bicycle shop had this nice looking gadget in the 80s and 90s. I don't think that there's a connection. I believe someone started this, it looked cool and so others followed.
Dirk
BTW: Every cent of my just outed Ebay auctions will go to Ernest Csuka to pay a Singer bill. (Maybe this helps...)
--
Dirk Feeken
Heidelberg
Germany
On the bike at the following site you can see a little Italian flag created by the addition of a steel border to the top tube (near the seat tube) that is then filled with paint. http://www.classicrendezvous.com./
Joe Szokoli New York City