This is probably the number one reason at the moment. Throwing in even a weak hit on your friends support requests will give you a random reward while getting your own guard defeated gives you 2 random rewards. So rather than spending 6 on beating your own you can spend 6 on helping to beat friends guards, netting you 6 rewards instead of 2.
What got removed was getting rewards for being the highest ranked on supporting, not the rewards from helping people.