You all do understand that the authors are deliberately trying to fool the emotions. Its not like this is a fair test of intelligence. Mystery writers often create emotional distractions because they know they work. Not because those emotional distracts aren’t real-life clues.
What works in fiction does not necessarily work in real-life. And what works in real-life is intentionally thwarted in fiction.
The writers are probably male. If there were more women writers for these shows, the “solutions” would be different.