Yea, I haven’t seen many honor duels in the wild since dark souls 1 because they’ve pretty much included some form of dueling mechanic since the Dark souls 1 DLC onward. It especially never happens in Elden Ring because as you noted, invasions typically go through to someone with a summon, so honor fighting is pretty much immediately thrown to the wind out of caution.
In Dark souls 1 did invaders not invade you to attack you at range while you were dodging traps in Sens Fortress, or try to lure you to the Darkroot Garden ladder to kick you off of it, or block the archer path in Anor Londo, or shoot you off the bridge in Oolacile Township, or move swap a rapier with the dragon tooth, or dead angle WOG you, or TWOP you, or DMB Power within R1 spam you, or etc, etc, etc?
If they lure you, don’t follow them. If they range you, use a shield, dodge, stand behind a tree, move in a zig zag. You’re the host, they have to come to you to get what they’re there for if you make them.
I went one year and six months. It was bad. I’m wishing you the best.