And the neutral is tied to (earth) ground. Otherwise all metal devices would shock you if you touched something earth referenced, such as a radiator, at the sam

And the neutral is tied to (earth) ground. Otherwise all metal devices would shock you if you touched something earth referenced, such as a radiator, at the same time. Edit to clarify: In principle, only the voltage difference between Live and Neutral matters for running a device. So theoretically one could construct a building supply where Neutral is not at earth potential. However, EGC has to be at earth potential, otherwise there would be a voltage between any metal electronic device and earthed objects, such as radiators or your feet standing in a puddle. This means that in practice both Neutral and EGC are always physically connected to the earth in some way and have to be for the system to work properly.