Originally Posted by
awesomness2016
You must be relatively low then. A TH8 making all dragon armies will not make back their elixir even if they win.
If I make GoWiwi at TH9, 2 armies are going to cost me about 5000 DE, and that's if someone gives me a golem for each battle, and without any donations to offensive or defensive clan castles. If we win, I make maybe 4000.
If Supercell were to drop the loot bonus for losing, they would HAVE to significantly decrease the amount for winning as well, and significantly increase the amount of loot available when you actually attack a base. Otherwise war simply wouldn't be worth the risk.
As others have said, the XP is much more about participation than winning. You DO get more for winning, to the point where a 35 member clan that wins gets more XP than a 50 member clan that loses. The penalty for losing comes on the loot bonus and war record, not so much the XP.