@toby-pereira That is true. This would matter most when the election is reasonably competetive and this could make the difference.

In my original email I specified that I thought of this specifically in the context of an electoral system (the one in Hungary), where it matters which how many votes a candidate wins or loses, as wasted and surplus votes are transferred and reused as list votes. In that case, a party or block running a losing candidate has an incentive to minimize the margin instead of getting a more in-group appealing candidate since it actually gives them more seats, and same for safe districts - a larger margin brings in in more surplus votes which may bring in more seats.