Higher leverage increases the AR because the required capital is the sum of drawdown and margin.

It is hard to tell whether the margin call risk is increased or decreased by using the capital that was set free by the reduced margin for buying more contracts. The equity goes down faster, but the balance grows faster. I would say that the short-term risk is higher but the long-term risk is lower.

The difference is normally not very significant because in most strategies the drawdown is much higher than the margin.