Just because you hav to have working landing lights, doesn't mean you have to have them switched on for landing.
From the limited info you provide, an electrical 'glitch' of the kind evident to the crew prior to taxi, would not cause this 'failure' of thelanding lights.
Sounds like the crew might have forgotten, or elected not to use them.
Sometimes I forget - although that then means the runway appears in sight a little later than I'd like, though!
Alternatively, in conditions of porr visibility, where visual acquisition of the runway lights is required to make the land/go-around decision (i.e. approaches with a non-zero DH), then landing lights are often a hinderance to visually acquiring the landing lights, due to glare reflected back from the fog/mist/snow whatever. Particularyl bad at night. Was the wx poor in this case?