I hope you don't get mad at me my friend as I am just sharing my thoughts with you. To me it seems that your lawyer is not up to date with the recent changes and misinform you sometimes which may end up not taking the best decisions. Consult other lawyers too. I have talked to a few of them and none matches with your lawyer's words. Visitor visa has nothing to do with PR application; never had. It is correct that at normal times if you have PR application in process they would probably reject a TRV, but even in that case it wouldn't hurt your PR application at all.
Moreover, even if you travel to Canada with TRV, your living address is still your home country and the PR application does not automatically change to inland unless you want it to. If you apply for a study / work permit for example, will change your status otherwise you are just a visitor and still outland applicant. I am not saying I am 100% correct though. but so far my findings have come true. They easily issue TRV for someone who has PR application in process for more than a year. This again is a sign that PR visa is not coming soon.