It certainly protects it for more than one drop. I dropped it 3 times in one meeting on Friday.
ops: It required a re-bend after the third time. The worst damage it took was the CF card being spat out.
If it gets hit hard enough on the catch area then the section alongside the jog dial hole
can get pushed in. This stops the catch locking, but takes about 1 second to bend back. Without covering the jog dial I don't think that they could have made this strong enough to resist a direct hit.