Bend Sinister

So much has been written of the significations ascribed to various ordinaries, but none has been so misattributed and maligned as the Bend Sinister. Everywhere I look there are two camps: "it is an abatement of honor/a mark of bastardy", and "it is not an abatement/a mark of bastardy". For all of that, there is never anything equally substantive presented by the proponents of the latter to counter the strongly-refuted former... leaving an uncomfortable void or pause that is so often left so, which essentially leaves the former unassailed.

Is there any historical attribution to the Bend Sinister that is symbolically reasonable (such as the Bend being likened to a ladder which might be used to scale the walls of an enemy)?