Start with $n = 2$. An element of $M(2,k)$Okay, so this is determined bynowhere near a single $a \in \{0,\ldots,k\}~$ for $k \geq 2$. Since we wish to avoid $a=0,k~$complete solution, but this is as far as I got and hopefully someone else sees it from here:
It is clear that $P(2,k) = \frac{k-1}{k+1}~$ which is certainly non-decreasing in $k$. Keep in mind the valid choices of $a$: these come from $[0,k] \cap \mathbb{Z}~$. Observe that $[0,k]$ is the standard simplex $S$ of side $k$ in dimension $1$ and that the $0$ entries correspond to the boundary of this simplex.
The caseWhen $n=3$ is much more interesting:, the matrices in $M(3,k)$ correspond to four integers $a_{11},a_{12},a_{21},a_{22}~$ from $0,\ldots,k~$ such that
- For $i = 1,2~$ the sum$i = 1$ or $2~$, $\sum_j a_{ij} \leq k$
- For $j = 1,2~$ the sum$j = 1$ or $2~$, $\sum_i a_{ij} \leq k$
- And finally, $\sum_{ij} a_{ij} \geq k$.
We get a zero entry if either one of the $a_{ij}$ is zero or if one of theThese hyperplane inequalities above is an equality. Each of these situations corresponds to the point with coordinates $a_{ij}$ lying oncarve out a boundary face of the four dimensional "prism" which consists ofconvex region $C \subset \mathbb{R}^4$ from the cube $[0,k]^4$ intersected withand the half space from"zero entry" cases of $M(3,k)$ are precisely the third inequalitybounding faces of this region.
So bottom line: I think, if a theorem establishes that the ratio $$\frac{\text{integral points on the boundary of this prism}}{\text{ the total number of integral points in this prism}}$$$$\frac{\text{integral points on the boundary of } C}{\text{ total number of integral points in }C}$$ decreases as one increases $k$, which leads tothen we obtain your desired result. TheI don't know enough about convex polytopes to cite something here but it sounds reasonable just from dimension considerations...
Ideally, this process generalizeswould generalize to higher dimensions. An element of $M(n,k)$ has zero entries if and only if the vector of entries in the first $(n-1) \times (n-1)$ block lies in the boundary of convex polytope carved from the cube $[0,1]^{(n-1)^2}$ by $2n-1$ hyperplanes.