This part of my Kubernetes on Pi series of blogs describes setting up Log2RAM if people are interested in doing it manually: https://2byt.es/post/bantamcloud/02-configure/

See "Log to RAM" (I really need to start putting Anchors in my Hugo markdown).

Not sure the problem is just wear. The SD card seems unusually likely to be destroyed by power cycles or brownouts.

I don't feel on especially solid ground saying that - although I've experienced dead (micro) SD cards myself. It's a controversial topic, and no doubt some people are confused by what's just filesystem corruption. There are flamewars.