You're not the only one I've heard say that before, which is why I asked. Since sediment settles on the bottom of the tank regardless, I'm curious where all this filter clogging crud suddenly comes from once the tank is run down close to empty? A couple of years ago, I changed the pump in my old 3rd gen with 116k miles. Other than some small harmless rubber bits in the tank (from the deteriorated pump to sending unit union), my tank was surprisingly clean.
Now, maybe in some rare instances where the car was stored for many years, you could have the dreaded "floating slime". Then as the gas level goes down, the pump could suck that stuff up. I'll give you that one at least!

 

The pump does not go bad because it sucks up junk from the bottom of the tank. As 69 said, it work that way all the time. The problem is that the pump uses the fuel as a lubricant and a coolant. Low fuel allows the pump to overheat and then die.