Bonding External Strainers

[sailingterp]

I am getting ready to replace the raw water intake through-hull on my boat as soon as the weather warms up a bit. I have bought into Maine Sail's philosophy on through-hull replacement and external strainer type and will be using one of the round Groco external strainers that opens. I have not come across any opinions about bonding these types of strainers and wondered if there is a consensus on the topic. The Groco installation guide says to use one mounting screw long enough to go through the hull and connect to the bonding system but I had one of the Groco engineers on the phone the other day and mentioned it to him and he said that he would not even do this himself because of the additional hole in the boat. Any thoughts on how long the external strainer might last without connecting it to the bonding system? Are there any other tricks out there that are effective without more holes in the hull?