Form 8854 - Part II - Section A - Line 1 - Prior Tax Liability

For context, this is about the prior tax liability criteria to determine status as 'covered expatriate' during expatriation.

Here the instructions for this item:

For each of the 5 tax years ending before the date of your expatriation, determine your total tax less any foreign tax credit. For 2024, use the amount shown on the 2024 Form 1040, line 24, less any amount reported on the 2024 Schedule 3 (Form 1040), line 1.

This does not make any sense. 1040 Line 24 already has the FTC subtracted. So according to the instructions, you would double count it, by subtracting it twice, which could actually bring you to a negative value if you live in a high tax country. If at all, it would make sense to add it back to line 24, so that the apparent tax liability isn't suppressed by the level of foreign taxes paid.

I haven't seen this level of glaring mistake in a tax form before, but I suppose 8854 is obscure enough that it never came up? And I guess, typically some international lawyer fills this out who doesn't read the IRS instruction document. But how did others fill this out? Common sense, or stick to the nonsensical instructions?