spadam_2000 :
I figured the whole house surge protector would be more simple, but if it is a more viable alternative to traditional surge protectors. Since the whole-house is in parallel instead of series with equipment, I figured it might not protect as well.
All surge protection operates in parallel with the loads they are intended to protect since their very function is to provide a lower impedance path between live/hot and ground/neutral than the protected equipment does.
The main benefit of a whole-home surge suppressor when all wiring is installed correctly is that when all the home's grounds are bonded and surge-protected at the meter or electrical distribution panel, it minimizes ground voltage differences between all the different cables (power, phone, coax, outdoor antenna, etc.) coming into the home, which should prevent surges from jumping between connected equipment since everything within the home is referenced to the same panel ground. Once you start connecting equipment powered from cable runs routed along different walls though, you effectively form single-turn transformer windings for the magnetic fields from lightning storms to couple into and make your equipment vulnerable to induced surges. This applies to point-of-use surge protectors too.
The main benefit of point-of-use surge protection is that you do not need to remodel the breaker box, get an electrician, landlord permission or do anything else to fit them, you just plug them in and get a convenient location to plug all your stuff in, ideally including all external connections to avoid letting a surge into your "protected island" through coax/phone/LAN.