I’m curious. What would propose having done instead?

There’s a large body of literature on this topic. I think it’s a little simplistic to dismiss it all out of hand.

Yes, that’s called the “protection hypothesis”. What these findings show is that above and beyond the main effects of having friends, they can also buffer the effect of peer victimization as well. A number of studies have highlighted this buffering effect, controlling for how friends help prevent kids from being victimized.