Usage of "whomever" in "whomever produces a more interesting result is the winner"

Question

Whomever produces a more interesting result is the winner.

I was taught like to use the he/him rule for the usage of whoever/whomever. So if you switch some words in the pic, then you get...

She produces a more interesting result. (therefore) She is the winner.

Also I found some other examples which didn't follow the rule as well. Such as...

Whomever has the most is the winner!

I heard lots of people saying like the word Whom and Whomever are being used less and less nowadays, and many of them can be replaced with Who and Whoever. But is it also true for the vice versa too, just like the one in the picture?

Answer 1

You are quite right, and for the right reason: whoever is called for here, because it stands for the subject of its clause.

Whomever in your examples is probably a hypercorrection—that is, a mistaken effort to write more "properly" by someone whose teachers have often reproached them for using who and whoever when whom and whomever are "correct".

But in fact the use of whom and whomever is rapidly dying in all but the most formal bureaucratic and academic contexts. Nobody but a pedant will object if you write

We'll give the prize to whoever we like best!

Even though whomever would be technically correct there, this is a colloquial utterance and should follow ordinary colloquial usage.