Personally, I want to try to see if this affects different games and maps, such as Fall Game or Soccer. I know MLCastle has Dodgeball with Koopas, and Minecraft has Dodgeballs with Wool Blocks, not to mention Bowling which could ruin a whole turn. But again, these would be tests with the weapon. If it is the weapon that's the problem, then maybe there could be a fix in certain zones where Reds are MEANT to be, for example, in bowling, an invisible square that enables Holiday Punch crits to do the proper damage necessary to register as a hit so it doesn't drop or not activate, but not so big as to take advantage and attack Blues. I believe this does sound alike to your second idea where it would register where an alive Heavy is.
If anyone is reading this, I would appreciate any help with these tests. If you're going Heavy as a Red, use The Holiday Punch, and see if crits affect how a minigame is played.