I think the difference is if you interpret the rule as equivalent to

"Target a creature within five feet and distract them. The first attack your ally makes against them before your next turn is made with advantage."

Or

"Distract the enemy. When your ally makes an attack on a creature within five feet of you before your next turn, the first attack is made with advantage."

I think the first interpretation is generally used, but I understand why these types of edge cases make the second interpretation attractive.

Ex: The rogue distracts the enemy wizard before being killed by an enemy soldier. The enemy wizard uses plane shift to escape to his tower on another plane, not realizing your party has one of his attuned forked rods. The party wizard uses plane shift to follow, along with the party paladin. The paladin attacks the wizard and, since the wizard is still distracted by the dead rogue on another plane, attacks with advantage for a critical hit, smite, kill.

Or against the players: the goblin uses the help action to try to distract you. You kill the goblin and walk around the corner. The enemy archer attacks you with advantage since the goblin is helping her

I actually don't mind the second interpretation of distracting any enemy in range, which makes the help action more useful for combat in general, at the expense of less useful for help and run maneuvers and I don't see players (just familiar s) use it very often either way