As far as AV honor - I think at level 78 I have about 50K honor. I made about 200 AV marks total. So maybe an average of 500ish honor per game.

In the 71-79 bracket you get exp as follows (my best guess)
1) Cap a tower 15K exp
2) Kill Galv/Balinda 15K exp
3) Win - you seem to get like 20K exp 3 times for some reason
4) You get these 5K exp spikes - maybe for capping a GY?

If you are losing bad, probably not a great idea to stick around if you are going after exp/honor.

AV was really fun most of the time - and when you get sick of it - you can always go back to questing/instances.

I'm on a PvP server as well, and I've had almost 0 problems with gankers. A couple deaths at SM and a few deaths at Honor Hold, and a few deaths at the Ebon Blade place so far.