They're also only seen in high end energy efficient construction in France, Spain, the Netherlands and I've never seen them in Eastern Europe. They're frickin' expensive! They may be more common than in the US, but still not "common".

Indeed. And double-paned windows are in the majority of homes in the US [1]. And triple-paned windows are a lot more expensive for not a ton more benefit no matter where you live.

Unless someone has some actual comparative statistics, the idea that European windows are somehow more "solid" than North American ones isn't at all obvious. I've spent years living on both continents and never noticed a huge difference. What matters the most is simply the age of and investment in the building, not which continent you're on.

[1] https://www.dwmmag.com/survey-multi-pane-windows-now-on-59-p...

Maybe triple-glazing is more rare, but at least in Poland, by my observation, almost everyone seems to have double-glazed, PVC-framed windows. I only ever see single-pane windows in really old and poor houses. IIRC, there was a rush of replacing old windows with double-glazed ones in the late 1990s/early 2000s.