Sorry to hear about your problem. It is really terrible to happen before holiday after receiving your updated preamp.
I would say this is a very uncommon problem that only very occasionally happens to tube amps. It almost never happened with preamps because the tubes are much lower power.
A friend of mine bought a Rogue tube amp twenty years ago, this happened shortly after he received it. He replaced resistor and tube, never having a problem again. I know many folks with tube amps and am friends with a dealer who have never had this happen in his broad experience.
So, yes it very occasionally happens, I doubt very much it happens more often with ARC, it is caused by a tube failure and is possible with most tube amps.
Tube amplification is very popular because of its sound quality.