Originally Posted by
idiq
While I agree with most of your post, I'm fairly confident in saying that the star nut would be stripped out long before the adverse tension would cause the pitting.
It's not that the extra preload would create the pits directly. But it can squeeze the normal lubricant out of the interface between the ball bearings and the race. When riding down a straight section of road you can then get vibration at this interface that causes rapid wear and results in the pitting.