"Bankruptcy protection" is the process by which a debtor is "protected" by a court while they reorganize their finances.

Protected from what? Protected from excessively hasty or harassing creditor actions, such as foreclosures, repossessions, law suits, harassing telephone calls, and the like. A more accurate lay-terminology for filing for "bankruptcy protection" would be filing for "financial reorganization" or "financial restructuring" under Chapter 7 or Chapter 13.