I don't think it's a good idea to orient your mix for least damage during mastering level overkill. You can't second guess what the mastering engineer is going to do to get extreme level. You also are compromising the sound of your mix forever, unless you remix at some later date. You can't cheat the laws of physics. 0dbfs is 0dbfs, and anything done to go above this level or limit the signal to stay at this level is gonna adversely effect the sound. In other words, whether the mixer limits peaks or the mastering person does it, the speakers are physically moving less air.
Having said all that, some mixes DO seem to "go louder" with less obvious consequences than others. Specifically in the rock/pop genre, I've noticed that the mixes with a subjectively even, balanced energy/frequency content, and very subjectively "punchy" sounding to begin with, will hide level induced artifacts better than mixes with wimpy sounding rhythm sections and spikey, glaring sounding instruments and vocals. The clipping artifacts really make the spikey sounding stuff hurt and limiting will turn a soft sounding track to mush a lot quicker. I'm not saying everybody should try and make their mixes sound like Tom Lord Alge, but those kind of mixes just simply seem to "go louder" at the mastering stage, even though plenty of TLA's mixes have been ruined by insane mastering level. Check out the latest Liz Phair CD. The verses sound decent but when it hits the choruses, things really get ugly.
The whole game in modern mixing is to get things as smooth and even sounding but at the same time aggressive and powerful. Kind of a Zen thing.
Dave McNair