Good illustration Jeff.

The ARB has wings that come back for the same purpose....we end up cutting them off when we do the BL's as there's no way to retain them when raising the bumper.

I like TJM's bracket that wraps the rails though, Brent's was pretty sturdy looking for example. I'm not sure how it would be retained if lifted...but, like the ARB's, you can always go to a fab shop and have them reinforce after the lift.

Thorsen -

A front skid that connects the front bumper to the front cross member would tend to reinforce the set up relative to horn distortion, and if butted to the cross member and bumper, act as a brace relative to downward or backward motion as well.

If not butted, the shear forces would be absorbed by the bolts themselves, rather than braced by the structural elements, and would not be as strong in that direction, albeit stronger overall than w/o the skid.