Sorry scone, try again. Of course if you add extra blades it will change the loading of the engine, but if you add more power to bring the prop up to the same RPM the tip speed is the same. However there are more tips with their resulting losses.

Your explaination is completly wrong. For the simple fact that the next blade never passes through the wake of the second blade, even when the plane is stationary. The air is moving through the prop and backwards, thus the wake is behind the prop when the next blade reach's the same position.