does a ground rod really do what it suppose to
250.4(A) Grounded Systems.
(1) Electrical System Grounding. Electrical systems that are grounded shall be connected to earth in a manner that will limit the voltage imposed by lightning, line surges, or unintentional contact with higher-voltage lines and that will stabilize the voltage to earth during normal operation.
Informational Note No. 1: An important consideration for limiting the imposed voltage is the routing of bonding and grounding electrode conductors so that they are not any longer than necessary to complete the connection without disturbing the permanent parts of the installation and so that unnecessary bends and loops are avoided.
I can see for high voltage system but for resi I don't see how it can do anything. Earth reistance is two high for  voltage sources around a residential even most Commerical for ground rods to do anything.
Line surges, helps but how much?
lighting, I saw mikes video on this, Seems like with system now all pex isolation from earth would be better so with a voltage gradient from lighting it would have no need to go through you home, if you had no point of contact with earth, such as no slap.
 I see why you only want one point of contact with earth if you have a GE, But with everything isolated now days I don't see why a GE
I probably watched a video and just forgot, but those little rods just seem useless.