The new take: “Epstein was a popular rich guy, everyone knew him and wished him well! It doesn’t mean they ‘knew’ him! Nobody knew what he and Ghislane were up to!”

Not exactly “new”. The recognition that guilt by association is a fallacy and a hallmark of an undeveloped, irrational mentality has been around for a while. The unsound indulgence of biases such as confirmation bias & emotional reasoning is justly criticized.

If you want to discredit your position though, and make serious inquiry look bad so people can point at you & say

See? These people are irrational! How can we take them seriously?

then this is a great way to do it.