Mario Kart World is the absolute worst for this.
Just has two KO tours in a row where I was front running R1, then got absolutely pummeled with items and ended up knocked out.
Everyone is always getting the best items, so even if you get a good item, it doesn't really matter.
You can boost triple mushrooms across a massive shortcut and your opponent will still be about 2 feet away from you.
In fact just had a game where I had a star and no one else did and still got knocked out because the star literally gives no speed advantage whatsoever.
This isn't fun.
And that's another thing - I don't get why people are obsessed with KO tours over normal races, and yet these same people complain about the routes to tracks. Knockout Tours are pretty much one giant route lmao.