Fights, whether they are PvE or PvP, count towards the towers. Generally, PvE fights give more battle points on average than neighborhood fights, since PvE fights have 7 or 8 units most of the time.
Buildings do give points, with more advanced buildings giving more points. But points from fighting are much, much, MUCH greater than those from buildings.
I think you are confused as to which points are which. The tower points are called battle points. They come from fighting battles in any scenario, and count towards the towers, which are essentially weekly tournaments. At the end of each week, the tower points get reset and people are awarded medals. When you earn battle points, some of it goes towards your city/player points. To find out how much, divide the battle points by 50 and that is how many city/player points you earn for the fight. City/player points is what determines your neighborhood and global ranking. City/player points are accumulated through building things, fighting, and collecting coins and supplies.
Because tournaments are reset weekly, you have to earn more battle points each week. However, city/player points that come from battling are never taken away. So if you wish to be a pointwhore like me, battle as much as you can to get up the rankings quickly.
