Surge protectors and power conditioners - Good idea or bad?


Years ago, I bought added surge protectors and a power conditioner to my system, including surge protectors/ power filters to my Martin Logans.

Recently I revisited this idea and discovered that many people say to avoid the above, given it's rare to get hit by lighting and blow out your components and that both surge protectors and power conditioners can negatively impact overall sound.

Thoughts?
cdc2
When I built my Bob Latino amp, the instructions explicitly said to not attach the amplifier to a power conditioner. I didn't quite understand the explanation, but leads me to believe that it is not an entirely neutral thing to add to your power. 
I live on a hill near a larger hill that often stops rainstorms.
The house is tall and has a lightning conductor running from the top of the roof down to an earth rod.
Lightning will always take the shortest/easiest route to ground so it goes that way and doesn't impact any of my electrical installations or cause any fire.
I live in an older, poorly grounded home in old suburb with an overloaded grid. I have most of my equipment hooked to power conditioners, except my amp. I based this decision on advice from electronic "experts" that certainly know more than I do. I don't hear any difference from when the equipment wasn't hooked to power conditioners.

That being said, my televisions do have less artifacts in low light scenes, now that they are hooked up to power conditioners. I also saw some general improvement in the overall picture quality. 
I have a Furman 20 elite and serves me well (20a line), I dont see how people can say to avoid them , if your a  video guy do allot of HT , Ive noticed without a doubt positive effects of having SP , I had some work being done at the house and they were running skill saws outside , my overhead lights would dim yes but not one glitch ,snow, fuzz, Jitter,  I know for a fact it works . It also has a Capacitor bank (Power Factor Technology provides a "current reservoir" for amplifiers, receivers, and subwoofers (over 55 amps peak charge) Im saying it works, call me a noob , I would never not use SP for my gear , wouldn't think of it , I have to much money into my system , I worked as telecom worker in peoples houses and seen first hand what strikes can do, Ive seen holes blown up in peoples yards ( accent lights ) along with sections of house wiring shot, I have relativly good power in my neighborhood but we still lose power on occasion and when that happens you get a surge , Maintinence cuts in the middle of the night ( Surge) doesn't kill your gear but it was in fact a surge none the less. Ill take the .0001 distortion it adds to audio all day long. 

I just had a while house surge protector installed at the main panel after the deep freeze in Texas. I did not notice any degradation in SQ what so ever. I sleep better believing that my Vitus 101 Mk II integrated amplifier and Lumin streamer/ DAC are protected from a power issue.