Yes, exactly. Your ends can be damaged not only by rubbing against clothes, upholstery etc but also from losing moisture into the air. Your ends need to be up and away for the style to truly be protective. Now, some folks feel that just having those ends up and off of their clothes is sufficient for them to avoid damage, and for that particular woman she may have a lot of success with those styles or not.
What I do hear a lot is posters saying how they have twists and therefore they are protective styling. Yet when you question them further you find out they haven't put those twists up into a bun or a chignon... they have those ends rubbing all over everything in the universe!
Twists are a low manipulation style, though, because they allow you to avoid combing your hair for the length of time that the twists are in.
ETA: when I was doing Crown and Glory braids, I put my braids up into a bun 90% of the time, and I often covered that bun with a satin scarf to provide yet another layer of protection. Some folks might find that to be extreme, but I'm happy with the results I got. 
