They will generally avoid heavily watered sod. Insecticides such as organophospates or carbamates have been the most common treatment of the past. Their weakness is that they only last 2 to 3 weeks and that gives you a very narrow window for effective control of the grubs. You must time your application accurately or you still stand a chance of a grub infestation and possible turf loss. The value of using a preventative grub control product is, you apply the product before you have a grub problem.
Timing is no longer an issue and guess work is totally illuminated.
The down side is you don't know if you are going to have grubs or not. It's very similar to insurance. If you have it, you won't need it. If you don't have it, you will need it. Bottom line is, preventative protection is much cheaper then replacing the turf.