It increases the number of offspring. The tautology is there as you intimated but should be removed by a revision of the definition. Perhaps someone should come up with a non-tautological definition of selection.
The only tautology would be if someone said: "The survivors survive." There's no tautology at all in the concept of natural selection -- in competitive circumstances, those who survive and breed are the most fit. Creationists have been harping on this "tautology" issue for generations. Like all other creationist arguments, it has no merit.
Hopefully that won't be a runaway virus. Definitely not useful. Here's a shot at revision: if the variation that is preserved is not useful, it will go by the term Unnatural Selection.
Selection is a label given to an observation. It may appear tautological in popular science writing, but it is shorthand for an observation, not a logical argument.