I have used two different hitch winches over the years. I've never bent a hitch - front or rear. I think it is a good idea to think about exactly what you are thinking about - don't pull directly sideways unless you are on slippery surfaces. There's a lot of subjective decisions to make. And you can cut the side load on the hitch by using a snatch block or low friction ring for synthetic and hooking the hook to the OEM tow point or similar.
The real downsides I see are these:
The winch sits low and forward. It will be a problem in some terrain to leave it in the front hitch because it'll be hitting stuff all the time. It'll be better on the 4runner because the front hitch setups are pretty high and tight. On my Tundra it's as high as it can be- but it's only maybe 8" off the ground. It's not a great place for it if you wanted to go off-road a lot. I've never had a situation where I could not install it, but it could happen. I think it would be very rare to have a situation where you couldn't install in the front or rear location.
Winches are kinda big and heavy. You're most likely going to put it in the back of your 4Runner. It takes up space and makes a very dangerous missile if you are in a collision. IMO it's very important to secure it to something strong in the back so it doesn't become a projectile either in a collision or in an offroad situation where your other junk goes flying around in the back. One minor plus side is that it has a rope with a hook on the end already, so you can potentially use that as a safety leash attachment to a cargo hook. But in a collision it might just tear the tie down loop off. So... you'll probably end up just sticking it in the front hitch for offroad trips anyway. I always did in my 3rd gen 4Runner. In my Tundra now - I put it in the bed. But it has much bigger heavier duty tie down points and a lot more room to put it back there.
You'll also have to have a quick disconnect setup for wiring. Not a big deal, but it's another roughly $100-150 in stuff you'll need to buy in addition to the winch cradle and front hitch. By the time you've bought $100 in wiring, $100ish for a front hitch, and $100 for the cradle, you're not that far from the cost of a winch mount.
The big plus is that you can leave it at home most of the time. It works on both ends. I also use it on a car trailer to pull cars on. On my Tundra - it works great. It's not a real offroader in any meaningful sense. And when I get stuck it's very nice to have. And I can take it with easily to the next truck.
There's no perfect solution. I like a lot about the portable winch setups. I've owned two of them and currently have one. If you think it's the best option for you - I say go for it. I wouldn't not do it because of the limit on side pulls. If you're doing enough offroading that you are using a winch a lot and will probably need to do that - you're in a situation where you really should be installing a hard mounted winch. If you're using it for more utility stuff and an emergency backup for exploring, it's a great option.
My other tips:
Buy one with synthetic rope. It's heavy. the synthetic winch rope saves a good bit of weight and is easier on your hands when you're moving it around. For my 4Runner where I used it a lot I had a superwinch talon that was more expensive. Warn on my FJ40. For my Tundra I have an off-brand Amazon winch
Amazon.com It works just as well as the Superwinch or Warn so far. I've also had the old super cheap HF 8k lb winch - also worked reliably. I paid $280 for the amazon one in the link above during a sale. Hard not to go synthetic if you can pick them up that cheaply. Seems to be comparable quality to the HF low budget ones, but comes with synthetic rope.
Don't buy that winch cradle online. I bought the same generic one for my current winch setup and sent it back. The welds were really poorly made - undercut and very little penetration. And the stem was about 15 degrees out of square. Just very low quality. The one harbor freight sells is probably better - and you can look at the actual one you'll get in person before buying it. Otherwise the Curt brand one is made in the USA, more expensive, but also significantly better built.
For wiring - I did this set for my current winch and it works well:
Amazon.com
And one of these:
Amazon.com
The combination of those two pieces is $120 and includes 3 cables - 2 of which are short length one is about 30 feet. The way I use it is to have one mounted to the battery dropped out the front, one mounted to the winch, and the long jumper set. On the front you directly plug winch to battery side cable. For the rear I use the winch plugged to jumper cables and then attach the alligator clips to the battery. <- that's not ideal, but it works for the infrequent times i need it. In my 3rd gen 4Runner setup I had the same setup, but I had added 2 more quick connect ends so I had a short jumper clip end set, an extension cord, a winch connected end, and a battery side set with a plug. The plugs are usually called "anderson connectors" but I've found them all to be basically the same whether Anderson brand or generic.
For crimping the ends if you are making up your own, the harbor freight hydraulic terminal crimp tool is great. Or you can probably figure something out yourself, but it's big cable and crimping it is not something you'll do with your typical electrician's pliers.
Hope that helps give you some information that's useful. Good luck!
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