I don't know how far south they run on the atlantic seaboard, maybe some rivers in Maine and perhaps Virginia. They are all over the great lakes.
They really do struggle and I also thought a lot more make it. Also when they make it, it's usually not sp obvious. People filming the spectacular jumps are either getting ome in a thousand or looking for a smaller wider jump and filming the best angles. From the fish's point of view, there is no reason to jump higher than necessary since there are a lot of jumps and a few hundred feet to climb in total.