Is all the rubber guard stuff really worth it?

I don't know jiu jitsu as well as a lot of other people but I do know that I can remember anyone really doing rubber guard and changing the fight dramatically because of it.

So my question is if the rubber guard is really effective or not in high level MMA competition.  

Latest example was Mike Lullo vs Edson Barboza last weekend. Whenever it hit the ground, Lullo whipped out the rubber guard and Rogan started naming all the crazy positions... crackhead, zombie, all this stuff.  Now, Lullo did get sort of close with his gogoplata attempt but most of the time I don't know if the rubber guard is really worth it. 

What makes it any better? Rogan said that Lullo was not using it properly at one moment.  Alright, well which MMA fighter is using it properly and where has it worked for him?

check out round two of george sotiropoulos vs. joe daddy stevenson from ufc 110 in sydney.

sots basically demonstrates the perfect use of the rubber guard.  he's on the bottom, so first he ties joe daddy up in mission control and protects himself.  then he traps joe's right arm and drives it to the canvas. as soon as he does that, he switches into an omoplata, sweeps joe, and ends up in side control on top. he does all of that without receiving a single punch from joe. plus george was against the cage almost the entire time, making it quite a bit more difficult than it otherwise would have been.

but the fact of the matter is george has much better jiu-jitsu than most of the guys pulling rubber guard. he knows what he is aiming to accomplish with it and how to get there. a lot of guys are just holding on to it for dear life and not going anywhere, and that's why it's been ineffective for them.

It was probably worth it for Lullo because it was the only time in the fight where he wasn't getting the crap beat out of him. If you can use it offensively it's good, a lot of fighters have been using it to merely stall.