I'm having a hard time figuring out what there truly is to argue about here. Stuff worked before. Then some of it stopped working when it got cold. That means something was under-designed for cold weather operation (probably multiple somethings), or cold-sensitive critical components/systems weren't maintained properly, or both. Said stuff works in other places when cold, so we can pretty confidently land on under-preparedness of some sort being the problem.
One could draw yet another analogy to cars. In a deep cold snap, a certain number will fall prey to one or more of: weak coolant, old battery, un-winterized fuel (for diesels), water (now ice) in fuel lines, and other issues I'm not thinking of. Power generation has it's own temperature-related risks, which the rest of the US has very clearly managed. Texas seems to be a slow learner in that regard.
On the subject of regulation (since it keeps getting brought up), it's not a bad thing in and of itself, but can be over-used like anything else. One of the neat aspects of the US is how much room the states have to govern themselves. That's a valuable and somewhat fragile thing; I feel we should be wary of how often blanket federal law is applied. If Texas wants to structure their power grid to avoid federal standards, bully for them (I haven't corroborated this claim from earlier in the thread). But then it's up to Texas to set and enforce its own standards and regs to avoid flusterclucks like this.
