You are misinterpreting what ARP says.
Yes, some materials are susceptible to stress corrosion cracking. That's bad.

However, nearly all failures start at the outermost fiber. Any kind of surface irregularity can act as a starter point for failure. They're commonly called stress risers, although they might better be called stress magnifiers. The rod bolt is the most highly stressed part of the rod. Using one with pits or other problems such as dents might cause that rod bolt to fail in service, which is also bad.

On the rod body there's usually enough material to polish out the problem, or shotpeening if done properly can help.

R.