"Rarely ever" and "when they do" suggests this happens more often than "I've never heard of this as a thing" here in Europe.

With higher voltages, fewer transformers are needed. Power lines are buried, and transformers are generally larger and not exposed to weather.

That was exactly my point, I have never heard that in Europe and I would say at least a dozen of them in US in a decade. Probably because there are more of them and exposed.

I am not criticizing the infrastructure but as European (and this is something others told me) it feels weird to see transformers hanging from poles and every now and then blowing up.

And I mentioned the weather because my experience is that it usually happens during storms, it might be lightnings or tree branches but that is what I have seen.

What the news covers is a.bad metric for deciding what is common. Commonplace things rarely make the news.

Is the voltage the reason power lines are buried in Europe? I do wish we would do so in the US.

Buried lines are invisible until you hit them with a shovel. The reason to bury power lines is mostly so you don't have to look at them.