What the ground does is protect you from a short inside the equipment which makes the metal case "live". By connecting the case to a ground, if you get an internal short the fuse fries instead of your body.

I believe most surge protectors etc... rely on neutral instead of ground, not 100% sure though.

M60ti, VP180, QS8, M2ti, EP500, PC-Plus 20-39
M5HP, M40ti, Sierra-1
LFR1100 active, ADA1500-4 and -8