Better systems existed but to your point, they were not well known.

Leaders today, with access to Wikipedia if not researchers with Nobel prizes, do NOT have this excuse.

This is the way. It is possible and unlikely to have a third party win under the right conditions, like with how the Republican Party became a national party after Lincoln was elected as a third party candidate. But ultimately there will always only be two parties with the outdated FPTP voting method. If only George Washington knew about and pushed for a better voting system than FPTP.