Anyone else notice how close payload ratings are between midsize and half-ton trucks?

A deer wouldn't bend your frame. If you would damage your frame with a steel bumper you would probably damage it with OE bumpers as well. A lot of it the newer front end design has to do with pedestrian safety and collision standards. As for armor it depends on how much you want to have...no truck is good at everything.

 

Going for armor reduces damage in low energy crashes. Old school bumpers were designed to save the car in expense of the passengers. When safety standards moved from not getting a dent to not having trips to the hospital is when the 'flimsey' bumpers came into being. Vehicles suffer more damage but by doing so they absorb a lot more energy that your face doesn't. It let's you get in a wreck and the stand around complainin that your truck is totalled instead of seeing grandma waving at you from a tunnel of light

Everything is a trade off...

 

Very true. I probably won't end up putting a heavy front bumper on mine. Aluminum if anything, seems like a good happy medium between strength and weight. Rather not have the weight of steel