Bridge is a great file browser, and supports all of the file formats in the Adobe portfolio. There are lots of overlap on rating, facial recognition, grouping, simple raw conversion, virtual collections, renaming files etc.
If you aren't using it, you may want to take a look at this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y_zIJHLwB8As far as Lightroom "losing" files - it doesn't. It can't. Lightoom's power is in its digital asset management capabilities - and like ANY DAM application, it is database-driven. LR only works on images that are first added to its catalog. This is not at all like Bridge, which is browser-based. Once the fundamental difference (browser vs database) is understood, it is really easy to appreciate the ease and speed and power of LR. I've been using LR since version 2, doing operations inside of and outside of LR's catalog, using multiple drives including external ones, and manage a single catalog of over 150,000 files. LR has NEVER lost a single file on me. The key is understanding that LR is NOT a browser.
Most people who get into trouble with LR is because they insist on using it like Bridge or any other file browser. Bridge does not have a catalog system, but LR does. If you move, add or delete files at the operating system level (Windows Explorer or Finder), not updating the file locations in Lightroom (by syncing the folders with the changes), will result in Lightroom losing the connection to those file locations. Think of it this way - if you are an organized auto mechanic (or carpenter, or plumber, etc) - you have a place for all of your tools, and you can work quickly and efficiently because you know exactly where your tools are - they are either in their storage location or they are in your hands or very close to you as you use them. When you are finished, they are returned to their storage areas. Now you hire a new guy - who has no respect for your organization style - he takes tools uses them and either leaves them around or takes them home with him etc - and all of a sudden, your tools are lost. The problem is not the organizational structure you have set up, nor is it the tools themselves - they don't have feet and can't walk. The reality is that 100% of the blame for lost tools is clearly on the shoulders of the new guy - for being sloppy and not respecting what you have set up.
The reason there is no way to use Bridge from Lightroom is that it is completely redundant to do so. It is presumed that if one is using LR they are also using it's file management tools. Everything that can be done in Bridge can also be done in LR - but with the more efficient interface, certain things - like operations on multiple files simultaneously - are must less cumbersome in LR.
Used correctly, it is virtually impossible to "lose" a file in Lightroom. Saving presents for just about anything in LR is a very powerful feature that is much faster to do than scripts, which accomplish similar things in Bridge.