I use them but more for an accessory outlet to plug in my soldering station or other stuff I might use working on a game. Lightning and spikes are hard on anything touching the circuit and its asking a lot for a surge strip of a whole house surge protector to catch everything.
A funny side note on surge protectors~
The electricians at work dropped a new 110 volt AC line for a new computer hook up on the shop floor. The receptacle was wired, hooked up and deemed "ready to use". I watched a pretty nice brand new high end PC go by on a cart destined for hook up. I was about 30 feet away and heard a really loud POP / crack followed by a white cloud rising in the air. It turns out the drop line was hooked up to 440 volts (not 110) and was plugged in. It was connected to a surge strip. A couple engineers thought the strip should have saved it but I thought that was REALLY wishful thinking.
Ah, the smell of a $2000 PC getting vaporized.....