Perhaps if we women were more honest, and they had the data on later babies, the culture around inducing at 41 weeks could be shifted by the mass of people having much later babies. For that reason, it seems like having those willing to be honest and be recorded could be beneficial. I've read plenty of stories from women in the last generation who went 6 weeks later than their due date! There's very few pregnant women I know willing to take that step.
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However, you're forgetting that many many women simply don't have the option of finding a different HCP who will operate differently and be sensible about it, taking the relevant research into account (which, by the way, is that expectant management, or 'wait and see' is at least as safe as routine induction at 41 weeks). If a woman is in a situation where she feels she should see a HCP, but doesn't have the choice about who she sees, why should she risk being forced into an induction at an arbitrary date in the name of 'complete honesty' with her HCP? How many HCPs do you know who are completely honest with their clients about all the risks/benefits etc. of various tests, procedures etc.?
In an ideal world, we would be able to be completely honest, and know that we would get the same courtesy from our HCPs, who would objectively present all the information, research etc. and then respectfully allow us to make up our own minds about how to proceed, without trying to bully or pressure us into unwanted (and largely unnecessary) procedures, such as routine inductions. But I think we all know we're not living in that ideal world, nice as it would be.
This is true- we don't have enough options much of the time. I took that attitude and approach with my first 2 pregnancies and labors. But I also learned that those I cannot trust in prenatal care, I don't trust to labor with me. My labors were strongly affected by the fear, interventions, and disconnect between a care provider who was not on the same page as me. In my third pregnancy- I lied about dates. But my first visit was so stressful and fearful for me, knowing I was being deceptive and not trusting those who cared for me anymore, that I cried on my way home and my husband made the call that we would pay for a homebirth.
My homebirth midwife was a God-send on the LMP/Ovulation dates. I showed her my charts, we talked very openly, and she let me go until, well, I went. My second homebirth was with the same provider as she was so supportive, and it was by far my shortest labor because I trusted her, I could relax with her, and I lied about my dates to everyone else, but when my body was moving towards labor a month earlier than I had told people, she was very supportive, and even predicted the week I'd be due. Having that support is amazing. Being able to have women who trust women, who know pregnancy, labor, delivery and know how to be 'with' those in those phases, should be something available to all women in our culture.
If you have to, lie, it's safer for the baby and you. But if you have to lie, you really aren't putting yourself in the hands of people you should trust with that fragile, intimate and very intense and scary time of your life. I do say scary- birth, especially labor never scared me, but there was the awareness of my own and my child's mortality and the fragile nature of us as humans. After birth, I feel like the strongest creature in the world, and the most delicate, holding onto the strongest and most delicate! Ah, the beauty of womanhood.
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