I don’t understand the bottled water thing either but I think the rise of things like delivery services and subscriptions can be linked to increasing workloads and decreasing community assistance.
If every member of your household is also working a full time job your time becomes significantly more valuable.
Shouldn’t everything be grounded through the panel as well? I know I have a ground wire running out to a copper plate in the ground next to my house and my understanding was that if the neutral goes that would serve as the path to ground. Is this house missing that feature or am I wrong?