Let's try to do $n\ge 4$ at least. Let $x_k=|z_k|$. Then it will suffice to show that
$$
\Phi(x)=\sum_k\frac{x_k^2}{(x_k+x_{k+1})^2}\ge 1
$$
Let us consider $\Phi$ on $x_k>0,\sum_k x_k=1$.
Notice first of all that if $\Phi(x)\le m<1$, then $x$ is separated from the boundary in the sense that $x_k\ge c(m)>0$ for all $k$. Indeed, at least one $x_k\ge 1/n$. Since $m<1$, we must have $x_{k+1}\ge\lambda(m)x_k$ (otherwise one single term is already above $m$. Then $x_{k+2}\ge\lambda(m)x_{k+1}$ and so on over the cycle, so all $x_j\ge n^{-1}\lambda(m)^{n-1}$. Thus, only the critical points are of interest. Also, since the functional is homogeneous of degree $0$, the differential should vanish at the critical points on the whole space, not just along the hyperplane $\sum_k dx_k=0$.
Now,
$$
x_{k}\frac{\partial \Phi(x)}{\partial x_k}=2\left[-\frac{x_{k-1}^2x_k}{(x_{k-1}+x_{k})^3}+\frac{x_{k}^2x_{k+1}}{(x_{k}+x_{k+1})^3}\right]
$$
which means that at any critical point all ratios $w_k=\frac{x_{k+1}}{x_k}$ are roots of $(1+w)^3=sw$ with some common $s>0$.
Now comes some casework. Notice that this equation can have only two positive roots (the LHS is strictly convex). When $s=8$, $w=1$ is a root and it is the larger one (because the tangent line to $(1+w)^3$ at $w=1$ has slope $12>8$. Thus, when $s<8$, both roots are below $1$, which makes this case impossible because then $x_k$ would decrease over the cycle. When $s=8$, the only option is to have all $w_k=1$, which results in $\Phi(x)=\frac n4\ge 1$ as long as $n\ge 4$. So the only interesting case is $s>8$ when there are two roots $y<1<z$. Notice that we cannot use $z$ every time (there are no strictly increasing cycles). If we use $y$ at least once, we have
$$
\Phi(x)\ge \frac{1}{(1+y)^2}+\frac{n-1}{(1+z)^2}
=
\frac{1}{(1+y)^2}+\frac{(n-1)(1+z)}{(1+z)^3}
\\ \ge
\frac{1}{(1+y)^2}+\frac{3z}{(1+z)^3}=\frac{1}{(1+y)^2}+\frac 3s\,.
$$
If we show that the last expression is above $1$, we are done.
To this end, it will suffice to show that $(1+y)^3<sy$ for $y=\sqrt{\frac s{s-3}}-1$ (the value that makes the expression we are interested in exactly $1$. This rewrites as
$$
s\left(\sqrt{\frac s{s-3}}-1\right)>\sqrt{\frac s{s-3}}^3\,,
$$
then
$$
\left(s-\frac s{s-3}\right)\sqrt{\frac s{s-3}}>s
$$
and, denoting $t=\frac 1{s-3}<\frac 15$,
$$
(1-t)\sqrt{1+3t}> 1\,,
$$
or, finally,
$$
(1-t)^2(1+3t)=1+t-5t^2+3t^3> 1\,,
$$
which is obvious for $0<t<\frac 15$.