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Let me quote Ramez Naam here:

Transmission costs money, but less than many believe. The cost of high voltage DC (HVDC) transmission lines is roughly 1 cents per kwh for 500 miles, or 1.5 cents per kwh for 1,000 miles transmitted. Over 1,000 miles, an HVDC line may lose 5% or so of the electricity it transmits.

I don't consider 5% per 1000 miles an "absurd" amount.

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Yes, losses are lower with a higher voltage (which for HVDC are around 100kV/1MV - in orders of magnitude)

However doing it on terrain is much easier than doing it under the ocean

Why easier. You just drop it on the floor. You don't need land right s or towers to build.

Isolating 100kV is not trivial

That's why we need big towers

When you can't use towers (on land) you have all kinds of special isolation techniques

And couldn't we up the voltage even higher for vey long distances?

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