In a lot of countries 3-phase is used much more extensively than in the U.S. right down to local distribution.
Even here in the U.K. where we're kind of between the U.S. and Europe in this regard, single-phase HV spurs and transformers are only found feeding very small collections of houses.
As soon as you get to anywhere of any size (even a small village) you'll find xfmrs feeding a 3-ph 4-w 240/415V wye network with each house then just tapped from one phase and neutral.
You only have to hop over the Channel as far as France to see 3-phase services even in very small houses.
