If your whole goal is to gain as many territories as possible (and nothing else), then 90% of your success is just participation.
Agree ... get 40/40 games in each day, and you're bound to get into the lead. Even if you only win 25% of them, you're likely to be ahead of everyone else just b/c you're playing and thus also winning more than other clans.
But with new clans only having max 40 members = 100% participation required every day ... this gives older clans an edge.