Granted that the only way to stop a direct lightning strike from killing something is to go back to using valves and, even then, you'll struggle.
However, the point I was making, and I think you have made as well, is that consumer electronics products are engineered down to the mininum cost and, whilst it meets the applicable standards that doesn't necessarily mean it'll work in anything other than the least hostile environment.
That the standards are set as low as they are is probably back to the bean counters, but at a national or european level.
I've often pondered the power of a lightning strike when driving the winch at the gliding club. Sending a length of 5mm steel cable with a bloke on the end if it 2,000 feet into the sky does focus the mind, and the winch gets shut down at the slightest hint of electrical activity.
A glider was unlucky enough to get hit (in free space, not on a winch) a couple of years ago and the damage was mindblowing. Sections of circa 15mm diameter control tubes in the wings got flattened by electromagnetic forces due to the currents they were carrying. Analysis showed they didn't get heated much above ambient so there was no melting involved, just a stong enough current in the tube, and thus electromagnetic field around it, to crush it. The steel levers at the inboard ends didn't fair too well due to their higher resistance. They vapourised explosively, blowing out a section of fuselage and both canopies. The pilots parachuted to safety but both suffered burst eardrums from the aforementioned blast.
BTW: Stormchasers might be interested in this:
http://www.isleofwightweather.co.uk/live_storm_data.htmLooks like Devon's getting a bit of a zapping at the moment!
Kevin