As someone who makes these puzzles, I'm interested in the thoughts on this. I personally like creating red herrings or garden path entries and have done it on plenty in the past. It didn't even occur to me that someone might consider it a cheap trick or disingenuous until I saw this post. That's why the ones I've posted on Lemmy haven't had those intentionally.
That being said, if some users like the extra challenge I'm happy to add a few red herrings into my puzzles in the future.