What bumper should I get?

I can't decide help me!!!

 

I go the protective route, so for me it would be the top one. That being said if I had to do it all over again, I would still do option 1 but I'd do it in aluminum.

 

I like the looks of the lower one more. Gotta consider radiator protection, and air flow too. The top one is like a shield to block air flow

 

Your bumper is the front end & primary protection. It will likely see the worst of whatever you hit/hits you. The top one will block direct airflow, but not completely otherwise my engine would have burnt out years ago yet it goes all day every day at 195F or less. Let me put it into the practical terms that I bought my front bumper.

I saw what my bumper on a 3rd gen 4R looked like after hitting a mule deer at 75mph. The 4R needed a hand wash & a headlight lens. The bumper was tweaked a little out of alignment & bent up maybe an inch & same denting on the skid plates. The powder coat was flaked at impact & scuffed on the bumper. I then looked at the same impact damage to a stock 3rd gen 4R. Most notably the antlers were going through the radiator from under the grill. It didn't really matter though because to whole 4R was totaled. In fact it was rather horrific.

As to airflow it's air, not oatmeal, the air flow will be fine. Try this: Take a piece of heavy cardboard, put it in a bathtub of water & either angled at the same inclination or vertically then push it through the water & watch the eddies swirl in behind it.

Another plus to the top one & since you're in KS not AU or FL, is that in deep snow when in 4wd, low range & chains on the rear wheels, that front plate acts like a giant ski turning my 4R into a big comfy snow mobile. I've done that several times over the decades & it's a nice built in feature. However, because of the friction involved, it won't work like that in FL sand or the pulverized silica sand they have in the AU outback, the middle-east or the desert SW USA.