Chris - as Endo said, Trampling is not the same as moving. I also think it is size based somehow. Example being that once elephants are mired in melee, they only trample 4-5 squares. Minotaurs and Trogs trample even less. Isn't there a movement penalty for "disengaging"? If so, that's actually it, as every time you trample, you move away from some enemies.
VFB - It's really hard to kill hundreds of chaff without taking a single point of damage. I am sure it's very annoying to be 150 corpses into a large army, and see that little red 3 pop up, and your beasty *poofs*. DRN being what it is, you are guaranteed to take a little damage here and there if you are completely surrounded. Maybe not much, but probably not 0. As far as the honeypot itself, I believe that Chris' idea was that after you defeat the first VoTD, that you load that guy up with insane MR gear, and just have him travel around with your next awesomest SC.
That way his 30 MR or whatever is so close to never failing, that your opponent may never get him at all.