Put at its extreme, the documentation I've seen suggests that there is perhaps only one somewhat disputed murder that has been linked to the sex trade in Sweden since they moved to their asymmetrical criminalization, compared with over 50 murders in Germany of women connected to the sex trade. That's violence at its most extreme, but it's a good indicator of the notion that legalized prostitution doesn't wipe out violence.
The men still want anonymity. They still have a sense of entitlement that if they pay enough, they can get what they want. In jurisdictions that have decriminalized prostitution, you will always have a large illegal prostitution industry alongside the lawful prostitution industry. The estimate is that about a third of the women in New Zealand are foreign nationals, mostly Chinese, who are not authorized to work in that country. It's interesting to hear that the switch in immigration may be an attempt to deal with the problem by legitimizing their being brought in for exactly that purpose. I don't know, but that's the first I've heard of it.
I think it's a myth and it's also an abdication of state responsibility. It is not the responsibility of individual women to protect themselves from male violence. It is the state's responsibility to put in place effective criminal laws that are enforced and that actually deal with that problem.