Would like the idea of a “deliberate knock on” to take into consideration whether you were trying to catch the ball or not , not whether you were a chance of regathering after the initial contact. Hands up in an attempt and the force of the attempt at he ball are not that hard to see.
For me Perese did have a crack at grabbing it , it wasn’t a deliberate swat away. Yes he was out of position defensively, but he tries to catch it.
The hardest part of the rule to accept is that it has to be a knock on. A player running back towards his goal line can deliberately swat a ball down even though he is no chance of catching it to stop a pass finding a support player, but if you try for an intercept and knock it on you face a yellow card. What’s more cynical?