This is like one of these newspaper stories that says one thing in the headline and another in the article itself.  I don't see anything about a QDRO:  "divorce decree states income was split 50/50" -- QDRO's don't split income, they split accounts.  You need to read the decree.  It just might say, "the 2024 distributions shall be split equally between the spouses."  Then it was up to him to tell the payers where to send the money.  When you refer to "the ex-wife's account," what is that?  Just her bank account somewhere?  

Sometimes it takes a while to set up the receiving account for a QDRO.  This sounds like a temporary solution for 2024 until the dust settles in 2025.