So essentially the local transformer secondaries are delta-wired without any earth (ground) reference?

Isn't the probability of an earth fault somewhere in the distribution awfully high? Unless I'm seriously mistaken an earth fault in any house or apartment would cause that phase to assume earth potential throughout the wiring on this transformer. In this case, the first fault in any other house would cause a dangerous potential difference.

In order to avoid such unpredictable situations most other countries opted for TN or TT