No, DHKs were introduced in Patch 1.5 which coincides with Content Patch 3. The Honor system was introduced in Patch 1.4 which coincides with Content Patch 2.
Therefore to match the Vanilla meta, DHKs should be introduced in Content Patch 3 and be absent in Content Patch 2. There was no Honor system OR DHKs in Content Patch 1 already.
Not sure how you read that as “counter-clockwise”.