There are many causes of power surges. While one potential cause is poorly maintained equipment, that is far from the only cause. Things like lightning strikes, tree or storm damage, load fluctuations, or equipment faults can cause them. They happen quickly enough that the protective systems can’t always prevent damage to equipment downstream, but those systems are designed to protect the distribution equipment, not the loads themselves. Surge protectors are designed to protect your loads from surges and are important devices to protect sensitive equipment. OP is supposedly an electrical engineer, but this is either outside of their wheelhouse or they are just trying to jump on the enshittification bandwagon.