It's true, and it's part of the mythos of the faction.
Have you ever read Dune? Sometimes I feel like I'm channeling Space-Fremen fighting the Empire when I envision the battles between Nomad ships and vanilla Starfarer ships.
If you want to block incoming missiles and fighters and such, you need to shut down your weapon systems and rely on directional shields. Dance away, regroup, and come in for a strafing run with no shields - take it all on armor, moving into and then away, always moving.
An interesting tactic is the drift; Vent flux, achieve maximum speed, and aim for a course that will near-collide you with a target. Let go of all thrust related controls at this point and slide at top-speed past your target, using all flux for weapons. It's an aggressive and dangerous tactic, but it pours the maximum amount of pain on a single target.