Bend a 1" x1/8th" piece of strap, Very easy with it flat, very hard with it standing up.
Not quite the same, but I get your point.
Thinking about it a bit more, it seems that the bending stregth would be better, but the shear strength would suffer due to the loss of material. In the case of a skid plate, the shear strength isn't key so more bending strength = a 'stronger' skid plate.
