> So, for a small apartment, maybe you'll get a single phase wire plus the neutral, or more commonly 2-phase wires plus neutral, up to the full 3 phase wires plus neutral.
> The phases are usually 220V between then and 120 between any individual phase and the neutral connector.
I am an American - an electrical engineer in the Midwest - and I was on roofs last week after a tornado came through our town, working with the distribution panels. What you said is not correct. Homes get 240/120 nominal line voltage, or 220/110V at the load, 180 degrees out of phase, plus a neutral.
That is not the same as two phases plus the center conductor of 3-phase Y.
In industrial facilities, it's reasonably common 208V 3-phase in a Y configuration, with three wires each 120 degrees out of phase with each other. This is typically used for lighting circuits, because it's 120 phase to ground and can use commodity bulbs and ballasts. More commonly, machines will run off 480V 3-phase, which is 277 phase-to-ground.
1 - hot 1 120 v
2 - hot 2 120 v
3 - neutral
4 - ground
And to be more pedantic about it, the ground is not provided not by the power company but the ground. I have 3 lines coming from the grid to my pole, line 1, 2 and the neutral that is created by the transformer. The ground comes from my ground - a long copper wire that goes a few feet down and back up. All ground connections in the (future) house will go there. Ground is also bonded with neutral at the box on my pole.
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You have some misunderstandings in your comment.
Unless it is a very old construction or a smaller home, houses in the US as well as most of americas are provided with one or more phases derived from the secondary of a step-down transformer in Y configuration (3-phase, 1-neutral => 4 wires).
So, for a small apartment, maybe you'll get a single phase wire plus the neutral, or more commonly 2-phase wires plus neutral, up to the full 3 phase wires plus neutral.
The phases are usually 220V between then and 120 between any individual phase and the neutral connector.
Europeans don't have this convenience because the step-down transformers give homes 3 phases in a delta configuration (so, 3 phase wires, no neutral wire), so, they only have the 220V between any two-phases.
Also, split and wall ar-conditioning systems are almost universally bi-polar with a capacitor, in Europe, Asia, or the Americas. As well as most refrigerators, freezers and other similar appliances. In the past we used to have driers that would be multi-polar, but it was never very common.
It is more usual to have tri-phase motors in bigger motors, like those used in central AC units. And HVAC systems in the US accordingly will usually require an upgrade if your home is not wired with 3-phase plus neutral, unless it is a small HVAC. Electrical vehicle charges also usually require 3-phase.
People are confusing what they have the electric outlets inside their homes with what gets from the street into the distribution panel in the house. Most power outlets inside a house are bi-polar connectors (so, in europe, they can only be 220 phase-to-phase, and in the US and most of the American continent, they can be either 220 phase-to-phase or 110 V phase-to-neutral. The third connector in a domestic outlet is usually the ground, not another phase or the neutral.
The three-phases are usually split between different circuits at home, trying to ensure that the load is somewhat evenly split, but at the outlets, you'll have either phase-phase, or phase-neutral, and this is the same in Europe or America, but the americans have the flexibility to have phase-neutral dipole with half the voltage that europeans don't have.
Regarding having smaller step down transformers close to homes instead of a single giant unit, we need to remember that keeping the low-tension wires short is more efficient, and this is achieved by having the transformers closer to consumers, instead of having a giant transformer distant from the consumers.
I am not an American, and I know that a lot of things in America could be more efficient, but power distribution to residences is probably not something were europe have an edge over the US.