Can the AC Power Strip in market today can actually help to protect against the Surges?

Answer: The AC Power strip today which built-in with Surge Protector can help to protect the electrical equipments from surge transient ( short duration surge), but not has the ability to protect against the long duration surge which known as TOVs (Temporary Over Voltages).

As mentioned TOVs is a long duration surge which has the duration about mSec up to a few seconds, which the today Surge Protector technology still can not be able to withstand this type of surge which made the sensitive electrical equipments still to damages due to the TOVs, as of this the Surge Protector you choose should be able to help protect against both Transient ( short duration surge ) and TOVs ( long duration surge ) at the same.