It doesn’t really make sense if the whole point of the tournament is to promote tryharding early in the season. If that’s the goal, then reward the teams that are successful for all games not just in their group.
The emphasis on point differential has also led to some awkward moments where players or coaches are forced to “break the code”. While I think that will continue to happen I think putting more value regular season wins more will minimize those situations.
I think this can be fixed with better scheduling. If the IST had less normal games during the group stage then it would make the tournament both less confusing and make the difference between regular season record and group standings smaller