I've had an ARB bumper for 5 years and winched myself out 50+ times from some seriously deep mud. That bumper has held up just fine so you must have been buying some duds. Ebay maybe?
Anyway, not trying to insult your craftsmanship but I seriously doubt your homemade welds meet the same standards as a well-known company like ARB. Definitely not good advice for most folks in any case.