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why shouldn't the player expect the flag to be thrown, even if he just sits down at that point?
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If they give up on the ball, how exactly am I supposed to know or rule that he could have caught it? The player obviously didn't think he could catch it. Why should I think he could have caught it?
Now, if he gets turned around by the contact or otherwise distracted, then this won't apply. Giving up on the ball and losing his knowledge of where the ball is due to no fault of his own are 2 different things.
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Do you void the encroachment
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There are no such exceptions in the rules that I am aware of on these sorts of calls. For DPI, there is a clear exception: uncatchable pass. Don't extrapolate one rule or one ruling to another completely different rule. DPI is a different rule entirely.
Besides, your play example isn't even similar to what I'm talking about. In your play, the QB didn't "give up" on anything. Quite the opposite -- he ran the play CAUSING the penalty. That's actually good football. A&M used to do this all the time when RC Slocum was coaching. Whenever the defense got into the NZ, the center would automatically snap, everyone else would hold their position, and the QB would usually kneel down. That's a free 5 yards and often a first down. Later, the QB coach realized that QB could sneak and pick up real yardage -- once I think they ran 25 yards or so for a TD as most of the defense froze and the rest had to chase.
Taking advantage of an opponent's error is NOT giving up on a play. That's silly.