Does this need to be bonded?

[LastManOnline]

It's a great document and one of the clearest explanations I've ever seen.
I'm not sure it helps this situation though other than establishing a helpful target let-go current.
See the diagram below and note the bit circled. That wouldn't be there in the situation this thread is discussing.

Isn't the point here that in all cases there's an 1000 ohm path straight to earth with at least 230ma current flowing, whether you add a parallel path through a unbonded pole (roughly 1000+ 110 ohms using value to MET) or a parallel path through an bonded pole (roughly 1000 + 66 ohms)?
Am I thinking about this right or losing marbles?!
View attachment 94766

No. Your marbles are very much where they are meant to be. But if I may offer my final comment on this post, it's this. Bonding as a topic is the "gift that keeps on giving" from the point of view that since I, ve been an apprentice no other single electrical subject has caused me more "head scratching" (along with the occasional headache.) The electrical game would be very boring without it

 

[ImpededLoop]

By standing on the soil you'd probably be wearing shoes that provide some level of insulation. Touching a metal pole with bare skin will give a lower impedance to earth. Also it would be a case of resistors in parallel so the two paths combined would give a reduced total impedance to earth.