Is that the reason so many cultures around the world have associated lightning strikes with vengeance by angry gods lashing out at humans?

This is very much the case, because all around the world people in all cultures have seen or heard about this for themselves and see intuitively, many times, there is indeed something sinister and purposeful about the improbability of a lightning bolt hitting a person, given the large landscape filled with potential targets. So this has led to many so-called myths and legends attributed to mythical gods, but truly created from the minds of humans in response to an intuitive awareness and the hidden truth of things that there are powerful beings running the world and making many, many, bad things happen to people that are harsh and even lethal.