The way I read it so far.... guys like fub are saying wait until the company buys the ticket, then deviate. This has always worked for me.
So far only one guy, kronan, has said this didn't work for him, and that was one time. One case of the company denying the higher fare does not make it a concerted effort by the company - more like a new or especially aggressive auditor.
I'm not saying that it's all peachy with deviation banks - but just like how you game other things, game the deviation thing. You can bet the company is. If you deviate as soon as you get your line, then you are stuck with the published fare. Guys that bid trips to their home city could care less, so they deviate early. If you are commuter, try waiting until the company buys a ticket and see what they pay before you deviate.
But as fub said, there are bigger fish to fry right now. Instead of arguing about an extra $100 on a fare we should be fighting the fact that many Sunday afternoon DHs have now turned into Monday morning DHs. I see more and more scheduled DHs with no possible backups, making deviating almost impossible.