I don't know about your case, but I generally see far too many people jumping on "math too hard" bandwagon. It's not math that is hard in this mechanic, but mechanic itself. With the time allocated one could literally use calculator to check every possible option until they hit right answer. The reason people have problems is that it requires more thinking than simple moving out of red circle and majority of players just aren't used to that.

If anything I'd welcome more mechanics like this one.