3 added 7 characters in body

I'm just going to make a basic point, so apologies if this is completely obvious to you (it's also contained in Igor Khavkine's much more thorough answer).

Let $Q$ be the configuration manifold of the system. The corresponding cotangent bundle $T^*Q$ has an intrinsic symplectic form $\omega=-d\Theta$, where $\Theta$ is the tautalogical one-form on $T^*Q$. For a Hamiltonian $H:T^*Q\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, Hamilton's equations can be expressed in terms of the Hamiltonian vector field $X_H$ (defined by $i_{X_H}\omega=dH$). Note $\omega$ is intrinsic to the phase space , $T^*Q$, and doesn't depend on the Hamiltonian $H$.

Now given a Lagrangian $L:TQ\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$, and corresponding Legendre transform $\mathbb{F}L:TQ\rightarrow T^*Q$, and assuming here for simplicity that $\mathbb{F}L$ is a diffeomorphism ("L is hyperregular"), one can use $\mathbb{F}L$ to pull everything back to $TQ$. $TQ$ becomes a symplectic manifold, with symplectic form $\omega_L=(\mathbb{F}L)^*\omega$, and the Euler-Lagrange equations are just the equations for the flow of the Hamiltonian vector field $X_E$ defined by $i_{X_E}\omega_L = dE$, where $E=(\mathbb{F}L)^*H = H\circ\mathbb{F}L$ is the energy function on $TQ$. I guess the main point though is that $TQ$ is not intrinsically a symplectic manifold. The symplectic form $\omega_L$ depends also on the choice of Lagrangian. This is one possible answer to why the geometric formulation is more common on the Hamiltonian side, and appears to be hidden' on the Lagrangian side: the geometry of $TQ$ (as it pertains to the E-L eqns) is tied up with the particular Lagrangian $L$, whereas the geometry of $T^*Q$ is independent of the particular Hamiltonian $H$.

I'd also recommend any of the books by Jerry Marsden mentioned in Spiro Karigiannis' answer as the best place to learn this (my notation is consisent with his).

Edit: I should clarify that by Legendre transform' above I mean (in coordinates) the map $p_i(x, \dot{x}) = \frac{\partial L}{\partial \dot{x}^i}(x, \dot{x})$. This is standard in the literature, but it differs from the classical meaning $H(x, p) = p\dot{x}-L(x, \dot{x})$ (where $p_i = \frac{\partial L}{\partial \dot{x}^i}$).

2 added 332 characters in body

I'm just going to make a basic point, so apologies if this is completely obvious to you (it's also contained in Igor Khavkine's much more thorough answer).

Let $Q$ be the configuration manifold of the system. The corresponding cotangent bundle $T^*Q$ has an intrinsic symplectic form $\omega=-d\Theta$, where $\Theta$ is the tautalogical one-form on $T^*Q$. For a Hamiltonian $H:T^*Q\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, Hamilton's equations can be expressed in terms of the Hamiltonian vector field $X_H$ (defined by $i_{X_H}\omega=dH$). Note $\omega$ is intrinsic to the phase space, and doesn't depend on the Hamiltonian $H$.

Now given a Lagrangian $L:TQ\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$, and corresponding Legendre transform $\mathbb{F}L:TQ\rightarrow T^*Q$, and assuming here for simplicity that $\mathbb{F}L$ is a diffeomorphism ("L is hyperregular"), one can use $\mathbb{F}L$ to pull everything back to $TQ$. $TQ$ becomes a symplectic manifold, with symplectic form $\omega_L=(\mathbb{F}L)^*\omega$, and the Euler-Lagrange equations are just the equations for the flow of the Hamiltonian vector field $X_E$ defined by $i_{X_E}\omega_L = dE$, where $E=(\mathbb{F}L)^*H = H\circ\mathbb{F}L$ is the energy function on $TQ$. I guess the main point though is that $TQ$ is not intrinsically a symplectic manifold. The symplectic form $\omega_L$ depends also on the choice of Lagrangian. This is one possible answer to why the geometric formulation is more common on the Hamiltonian side, and appears to be hidden' on the Lagrangian side: the geometry of $TQ$ (as it pertains to the E-L eqns) is tied up with the particular Lagrangian $L$, whereas the geometry of $T^*Q$ is independent of the particular Hamiltonian $H$.

I'd also recommend any of the books by Jerry Marsden mentioned in Spiro Karigiannis' answer as the best place to learn this (my notation is consisent with his).

Edit: I should clarify that by Legendre transform' above I mean (in coordinates) the map $p_i(x, \dot{x}) = \frac{\partial L}{\partial \dot{x}^i}(x, \dot{x})$. This is standard in the literature, but it differs from the classical meaning $H(x, p) = p\dot{x}-L(x, \dot{x})$ (where $p_i = \frac{\partial L}{\partial \dot{x}^i}$).

1

I'm just going to make a basic point, so apologies if this is completely obvious to you (it's also contained in Igor Khavkine's much more thorough answer).

Let $Q$ be the configuration manifold of the system. The corresponding cotangent bundle $T^*Q$ has an intrinsic symplectic form $\omega=-d\Theta$, where $\Theta$ is the tautalogical one-form on $T^*Q$. For a Hamiltonian $H:T^*Q\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, Hamilton's equations can be expressed in terms of the Hamiltonian vector field $X_H$ (defined by $i_{X_H}\omega=dH$). Note $\omega$ is intrinsic to the phase space, and doesn't depend on the Hamiltonian $H$.

Now given a Lagrangian $L:TQ\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$, and corresponding Legendre transform $\mathbb{F}L:TQ\rightarrow T^*Q$, and assuming here for simplicity that $\mathbb{F}L$ is a diffeomorphism ("L is hyperregular"), one can use $\mathbb{F}L$ to pull everything back to $TQ$. $TQ$ becomes a symplectic manifold, with symplectic form $\omega_L=(\mathbb{F}L)^*\omega$, and the Euler-Lagrange equations are just the equations for the flow of the Hamiltonian vector field $X_E$ defined by $i_{X_E}\omega_L = dE$, where $E=(\mathbb{F}L)^*H = H\circ\mathbb{F}L$ is the energy function on $TQ$. I guess the main point though is that $TQ$ is not intrinsically a symplectic manifold. The symplectic form $\omega_L$ depends also on the choice of Lagrangian. This is one possible answer to why the geometric formulation is more common on the Hamiltonian side, and appears to be `hidden' on the Lagrangian side: the geometry of $TQ$ (as it pertains to the E-L eqns) is tied up with the particular Lagrangian $L$, whereas the geometry of $T^*Q$ is independent of the particular Hamiltonian $H$.

I'd also recommend any of the books by Jerry Marsden mentioned in Spiro Karigiannis' answer as the best place to learn this (my notation is consisent with his).