Hey this was a wonder read especially when you broke down the smash/grab and the attrition play. TBH I actually was theory crafting the attrition build, but my post builds didnt get much traction so I scrapped the posts and just made suicide attackers to get even with those bullying my accounts.
The attrition build is actually quite intelligent and few talked about this(the key to this is a higher fort and faith so you have far less reason to ever be attacked) and allows you to attack at or just 1 below your fort level optimally. You risk little to no downside with that growth to your upside after a win stop or attack in approriate 2-3 levels down for higher % success.
(Fun fact and small little edit its actually 1:2 part:hive i think within post i read 2:1 part:hive so that's 4x the goodness)