I don’t think what you’re saying jives with the reality of what happened in Texas. The price of electric and natural gas skyrocketed during the shortage. A company that winterized their equipment stood to make a killing. And yet, despite the massive profit incentives, large swaths of Texas were blacked out due to lack of preparation. Besides that, the economic damage of the outages far outweigh how much winterization would have cost. The power companies are unlikely to bear the burden of that. All together, that’s not a good recipe for a pure free market system.

People also find the idea that only the rich can afford to have heat so that the pipes in their walls don’t burst distasteful.