Having the article sit there doing nothing for five days isn't too bad.
Exactly.
Sometimes, though, the prod tag gets removed, at which point I have to make a procedural listing at AfD and reset the five-day countdown to when the article can go, which does make me wonder if it's really worth it.
Yeah, that is annoying... maybe PRODs should have to go through an extra step to be removed: One person adds a PROD tag, another changes it to a DISPUTED-PROD tag, another can then remove the tag, after which it has to go through AfD to be deleted. Admins can delete DISPUTED-PRODs after the usual 5 days (or maybe 2 days after the dispute is added if it is disputed in the last 2 days of the 5 day period). Basically, this means 2 people have to agree in order for a PROD to be removed (yes, this can be got around with sockpuppets, but there isn't much we can do about that that we don't do already).
On the other hand, quite a few get speedied by another administrator shortly after I've PRODded them -- in which case I've wasted time and may as well just have disposed of it myself. So perhaps for that reason alone we should either change A7 or agree to stick to it; I don't know.
All admins should follow the same set of rules - there shouldn't be a lottery involved in CSD, an article should be either deleted or kept regardless of who is patrolling CSD at the time.