My understanding is that its largely a byproduct of how many of our major cities developed. When power infrastructure was originally being run, our cities were much less dense than what was already in Europe. They installed power above ground because there wasn't the density to really support funding underground lines, and because above ground lines are easier to add to as the city does become more dense.

I lived on a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico for a couple years. The island gets hit with storms pretty regularly, two or three major storms in my lifetime if I'm not mistaken. All of the power lines were above ground until maybe 5 years ago for two reasons - the island had a pretty low density for full time residency and buried lines are expensive, and they were worried about issues with burying lines in a sand island that can quite literally move and shift after a major storm. It seems like the latter either isn't a concern today, and its a good thing because those power poles were always causing problems on the island.