Ok. I never do the honor race. Only if I find myself accidentally in the top 10. But I did do it once when I brought my hero back from extinction. That honor race was BRUTAL. And it was a total donut fest.
But, I usually do not hit the people I am competing against until the very end. Just out of respect that I know they are working hard at it. But when I am not competing, oh yeah I am taking honor from all of them. But it is nothing personal. It is just stockpiling honor really. Then there are people who win it all the time, I may help the underdog if I can. Lots of elements come into play.
Losing honor is a good tactic. Do I think the tournament should not count honor lost in defense hits. Nah, I wouldn't go that far.It is the same exact thing as in the leagues. When you advance into the next league---you get your booty kicked. Until you get stronger.
The honor race----well I think it runs pretty fair. A lower level, well they can plow past the higher levels in the beginning. That is because they have low honor so they get a higher return for who they attack.
I think the whole losing honor thing started because a high level with lots of honor had no way to win the honor race from week to week. Not when you are pulling in 10 and 12 honor pts per person. So they lose to win.
I think to win an honor race---you need to have friends feeding you honor. Or you lose honor for like a month until you have like 0. But still you would need donuts for some refreshes to actually take number 1.
What I am saying is that even with your idea in place, there are a lot of other factors that come in to winning an honor race.