I always read hints and in-build help. This is not the case in this game. It explicitly went against the "common convention" so to say. In all location guessing games you get one try per location, and most times you don't need to read instructions if you see a different guessing site. Number 5 is also a tell and different pictures. If it was say 2 tries with different pictures, people would have suspected that something wrong. If it was 5 tries but with the same picture, also suspicious. But it literally had the same game flow from as other guessing games.

And about the instructions. Sure, it is useful to read them, but even more useful, for all humans, is to rely on the training. We don't carry around dictionaries to talk, we don't read "Introduction to Javascript" daily, we don't use UX designer guideline book to open a faucet in the bathroom. And re-training is not free, that's why so many people jumped in based on their old skill. Not based on their ignorance, but on the skill, and that's important distinction. People actually knew how to play such games, that's why they subconsciously omitted instructions.