I have seen where a player accepts they cant use a dodge against high velocity

They instead state they will simply burn a dodge to gain a surge on hits

Pretty sure this isn't legit

Nope, Not legit. You can't spend dodges at all.

As SailorMeni said, the target cannot spend Dodges for any reason. The wording is specifically "cannot spend Dodges during Apply Dodge and Cover" step to prevent the target from getting any benefit from those tokens.

High velocity works as stated above. What does work, in cases where high velocity is not in effect, is spending dodges on crits to get surges (it will not cancel a crit, but does allow for surges to convert)