A little late to this thread but I identify with it. Had a lightning hit last year, Hit a tree that was just 15 feet or so away from the underground electrical entrance. Took out 2 TVs, 3 switches, 2 UPS, Router, and Bluesound box. Also took out the electrical meter and my solar system inverter. What took out the TVs, Switches, Router, and Bluesound box was the LAN port. Strangely enough the cable modem was ok. One of the UPS actually smoked.
My theory is that a large static electrical charge hit the LAN ports. Most of them would power up but the LAN ports would not connect. I have since added these devices to the incoming COAX and between the cable modem and the router:
I added the optical link between the router and Bluesound box mainly for noise reduction as it replaced a 50 foot ethernet cable run and for the protection.