That is what I think interviewers think when I don’t immediately bring up kubernetes and sqs in an architecture interview

depending on the shop? For some kinds of tasks, jumping to kubernets right away would be a minus during interview.

Recommending kubernetes immediately is an insta-rejection for me, if I was an interviewer

The interview goes both ways.

The few times I've ignored red flags from a company in an interview I've been in a world of pain afterwards.

So give both answers. Itd would happen all the time in college, or in a thesis defense, where one disagrees with the examiner and one finds oneself in a position of "is this guy trying to trick me!"

Give both answers, and explain why the obvious "hard" answer is wrong

Exactly!!! This is an interviewer issue. You should be guiding them. Get the answers for each scenario out of both sets of interviewees and see if they are facile enough to roll with it. Doing a one shot "quiz" is not that revealing....