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The anode rod base doesn’t need to be conductive to the water heater.
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Actually, I think it does. The chemistry of corrosion is fairly complex (at least to me), and is better explained by various electro-chemistry articles on the internet. And we have at least one knowledgeable chemist here on the Forum who may choose to explain it a lot better than I can. But the bottom line is that corrosion involves the flow of electrons (in other words, an electrical current). The way to prevent this flow of electrons is either to electrically insulate the iron from the water/oxygen, or to divert the flow away from the iron by giving it a more attractive metal to work with - aluminum, for instance - and let the aluminum corrode.
C'mon, let's have the chemist step up here, and rescue me.
Bill