I think the confusion comes from the change in how we look at the water pipe.
In the old days, the water pipe was seen as the "grounding electrode," the point where lost electricity returned to earth.
That is no longer true. Today, the water pipe is nothing more than another piece of metal, that we connect to the ground wire network to "drain" it of any "lost" electricity, return that electricity to the panel, and let it return to earth through the ground rod.
In very simple terms, this is the difference between "grounding" and "bonding".
We used to "ground" through the pipe.
We now "bond" the pipe.
