My initial premise, along with E (who is not compelled to agree with me) is that the game is part of the larger competition.Are you being intellectually honest here, or just trying to be right? If it was acceptable to fix the match, there was no reason to "act" out a game. They should have had the refs just mark the scorecard and the refs could have made the girls run laps to avoid a bullshit circus show.
It is the competition that matters. So if there is one game Wed night to see who is better - that one game matters. If there is a tournament, it is who wins the tournament. If it is the Tour de France the team riders are expected to take it easy on the TT so they can help their guy win the Tour. The goal is to get the hardware, title, money. The other stuff along the way does not matter other than getting to the goal.