

We have underground cables in the neighborhood, and above ground cables along the main road. The city does a good job trimming the trees, so branches falling on lines isn’t really a thing. We’re also a desert climate, so there aren’t that many trees anyway.
That said, I grew up in the PNW (near Seattle) and we only lost power 2-3 times, though the outage was often for a few hours or even all night.
100v instead of 110v, or sometimes a surge of 129 for a brief period
Wow, that’s a crazy spike! I got a beefy surge protector, so I think I’m good, but I could see a UPS being worthwhile if your data is mission critical. Mine is just video games and some coding projects (which are backed up elsewhere anyway).
Yup, it’s a process of continually improving.
Battery backup is pretty far down my personal list of priorities, but it may be at the top for someone else.