Top damage screw the beacons losses.

Got 14 beacons on Moon map with an ECU/Cossack. Noone else on my team took 1. Lost the match.

Took my Rhino on an around the map stroll capping beacons once because noone else was going for them. I was amazed that I managed to go all the way around the Canyon map without anyone even shooting at me until I went for the center beacon. Got every beacon but lost the match anyways. 5 beacons just wasn't enough since noone else was taking or defending them either.

I'm a full Champion in the Amazon servers but that's mostly because there are so few players in that server system. It's exactly like playing in the Android LQ since all levels of players are forced to play in matches together. I'm one of the clubbers(there are very few leavers there) because I got in on it early and my equipment is pretty highly upgraded comparatively to most other players.
But I've noticed very little difference between new players and those with more experience when it comes to getting those beacons. The Amazon Golds-Champions have figured out that just getting high damage can keep them ranked and it seems that that's all they're concerned with a lot of the time.
I usually get 3 beacons per match but I'm running 2 Leos, 2 Griffs and a Galahad while trying to fight as well. Can't do everything, but I am doing all that I possibly can. But damn it frustrates me no end when I take one of those big babies of mine on stroll to get those beacons everyone has been ignoring only to have some shitheel light bot beat me to it by one or two steps after I've used up so much time just getting that close. Especially on maps like Yama, Springfield and Canyon.

If anyone has ever checked you get 10k Ag for every beacon you take. I know this from running ECU/bots for a long period of time in the LQ. So for me using a light bot just to cap beacons was comparable to just using a light bot to fight. And doing both with a light bot was no different than either of the other playing modes. It's the same rewards no matter which option you choose to play but the dedicated beacon capper mode usually gets more Au in the long run. At least that was my experience while doing it.