Thats a myth. The only crashes a towbar helps against is touch parking and a light bump. At work we see heaps of vehicles that have been rear ended with towbars, and it usually ends up in damage to the rear floor, rear panel and rear frame rails since you are putting a ton of force through the bar, and parts of the car that werent designed to have the force there. The bars often get pushed up or down, as does anything the bar is attached to.
Utes with towbars are great, they often end up bending the end of the chassis rails. Big $$$ to fix, which is good for us 😁