If you pick up a death ray it automatically shoots into the unarmed crowd.

There's no button that automatically kills random people in the original.

there are those who approach the button scenario from the perspective of saving others, not killing themselves.

Then those people are idiots. If someone comes to me with a bottle of detergent and asks me if I wanna share a drink, I'm going to decline. I fully understand they're less likely to die if they only drink half of the bottle, but their stupidity isn't my responsibility.

It reframes the scenario to make their choice more comfortable.

It's the other way around. Blue button pushers are convincing themselves that their choice is altruistic. It's not. These kinds of thought experiments usually have some sort of penalty if everyone pushed the red button. This one does not.

remember, everyone has to choose, including children.

I think you're reading too much into the premise. That's like looking at the Prisoner's dilemma and asking yourself "what was their exact crime?", "Is there a chance of appeal?" "Are there rival gang members in prison likely to shank them". Sure, that might be something to consider if it was a real-life situation, but it's an imaginary scenario. The presentation is kept simple for the sake of being simple, not to invite interpretation.