An absorbent article, such as the shown diaper (10), has a front waistband portion (14), a back waistband portion (12) and an intermediate portion (16) interconnecting said front and back waistband portions. The article includes a backsheet member (30), a liquid permeable topsheet layer (28), and an absorbent body (32) sandwiched between the topsheet layer (28) and backsheet member (30). The backsheet member includes an air permeable, polymer sheet layer (96), and a first, outward nonwoven fibrous web (94) attached to or otherwise operatively joined with a major facing surface (78) of the polymer sheet layer (96) at a plurality of individual, spaced apart thermal bonds (98). The outward nonwoven web (94) includes a plurality of fibers having substantially unbonded lengths which extend substantially continuously between at least an adjacent pair of the bonds, and the substantially unbonded fiber lengths are arched away from an outward surface of the thermal bonds by arch heights (60) which provides a distinctive embossing element depth value. In addition, the fibers of the outward nonwoven web can have a selected denier, and the outward nonwoven web (94) can have a selected basis weight.