Fair enough, but that would surely be the result of local 'last mile' type infrastructure issues on a tiny scale, rather than wholesale electricity production (not being able to supply a whole city despite all the distribution infrastructure being in place), which is the topic of the article and threads.

Sure, a squirrel fries itself on a line. A tree branch falls on a line.

But the raw infrastructure was super reliable in the 70s. If anything we've used digital systems to chip away at the safety margins of the original designs

Two of mine we in the same village over two years, so yes, not everywhere is reliable. It was the same failure twice. So, yes, not everywhere is that reliable.

On the other hand I have lived in multiple places of varying sorts and regions of England (from London to a village in the North) so I think most places have reliable power, especially towns and cities. Other people's experience is mostly the same.