Meh, putting the blame on third-party candidates or their voters is obviously wrong, but it's undeniable that if a voter genuinely cares about preventing the worst outcome, then the only worthwhile course of action is choosing the lesser evil.
But lesser of two evils is still bad, because the consequence is always evil.
You say the crazy scenario that if all the Clinton > Trump voters vote for another option but all the Trump > Clinton voters vote for Trump, Trump will win, but what about the not any crazier scenario where a vast majority of voters from either camp vote for their actual favorite, regardless of party affiliation? The consequence of that is a functioning representative republic, freed from the two-party system of evil vs. evil.
