but in the end, we were too concerned that readers might interpret it as a mistake on our parts, or be waiting for a payoff that would probably never come

I wish readers and viewers were not so often primed to treat narratives as puzzles, where every detail is a clue and must be either meaningful or a mistake. It's like the Golden Age mystery somehow became the default narrative form and it seems to lead to a lot of confusion and disappointment when a story isn't that kind after all.

But that kind of thing happens all the time in real life, and I'm a little sad that we didn't stick to it.

Understood and sympathies. I like the idea of a character having accidentally given away the truth long before anyone thought to look for it.