I agree, I would never put a regular "bra" on my car. They are uglier than the stone chips!
The nice thing about the clear thingy (I hesitate to call it a bra), is that it is really invisible. Under most lighting conditions, you just cannot see it. If I didn't tell my wife about it, I bet she'd never even notice it, for years.
I don't know about MB paint in general, since this is my first, but it seems to chip pretty easily.