Thanks for the help Zmanco. Here is another way to say it: The rotation of the driveshaft is perpendicular to the centerline of the car. So that is a side to side torque. The ring and pinion convert that torque to be on the fore/aft plane instead of the side/side plane. With me so far?
When there is a lot of resistance in this conversion process, the byproduct is torque. Without resistance, you have no torque, right? So the torque on the driveshaft makes the differential case want to spin. The mustache bar keeps the diff from just doing a barrel roll under the car. Once that rotational torque has been handled, then the next one is at the ring and pinion. The pinion wants to crawl up the ring gear rather then move the car forward. Hold the nose of the diff down limits the loss of torque thru the lifting of the diff and now the power HAS to go thru the gears and out to the axles and will actually drive the car.