I don't doubt, that these guys have managed to blow their FETs by inappropriately using bootstrapped drivers.
But it's not generally true, that you can't use a IR2110 driven H-bridge with no load. Yes, you have to keep a minimum duty cycle for the low-side switches to keep the bootstrap capacitors charged. You even can shut down the inverter completely, and you can start at full current, if you follow a specific turn on-procedure, to charge the bootstrap capacitors first.
As an additional remark, the said drivers also have a low voltage lock, so they don't cause MOSFET desaturation even with discharged bootstrap capacitors. But I can imagine, that you get problems in some cases, e.g. with a transformer load and no effective over-current protection.