You make a good point and it prompted me to do some more testing. The setup I mentioned will work if the bearer is killed in combat but not, it appears, outside of combat. Once again demonstrating why mind hunt is OP and non-S nations can never win.
The twist is that if the armor of virtue wearer receives the ritual of returning tag then he'll be protected outside of combat as well and be safe even from mind hunts. I'm not sure if the tag is triggered by number of units involved in the combat or number of kills. Having a few dozen units on each side triggered it but having just a handful didn't seem to.
And since the ritual of returning tag stays even when the armor is removed it means you could hand the armor around and have multiple commanders with returning.
