Sentence Correction

The original source may be the GMAT paper test, but did you guys actually get it from the original source itself, so that you know for sure what the right answer is? Or did you get it online somewhere? When we get "official" stuff online, it's really no longer official, because we have to assume that some number of errors will be introduced via transcription, etc, as people pass things around. Many of the problems are fine, but many are not, and you don't know which are which. In this case, at some point, someone apparently introduced the error that the OA is A.

So that's what I meant by "be careful of your source" on this one!

The OG only discusses "because of" vs. "due to." The OG prefers "because of" rather than "due to" and considers using "due to" in place of "because of" incorrect. (This is somewhat obsolete in common language today, but OG apparently still holds to it, and what we care about is what OG says!)

I haven't found any OG discussion of "on account of" so I don't know what OG would prefer here. That's why I made my decision based upon other factors (and that's also why you should do the same!).

I did find this: https://www.bartleby.com/68/69/4269.html
so, assuming that OG follows conventional wisdom on this one, this difference is a "red herring" - a difference that doesn't actually indicate an incorrect usage in either case. Instead, they're just trying to get us to waste time thinking about something that's not an issue.

Remember: just because there's a difference in the words used doesn't always mean there's a grammatical error or distinction.

I'm struggling to come up with a sentence that would use "make it a crime that."

The new law makes it a crime TO <do something>.
The new law makes it a crime FOR <someone> TO <do something>.
The new law makes <something> a crime.

Nope - I can't think of a way to use "that" after "crime" in this kind of sentence.

Ah - notice that, in what you typed, you didn't include the word "crime" - you were quoting a simpler idiom.

For instance, I could say, "The drops of water on your coat and hat make it plain that it is raining outside."

But that's now a different construction; I'm not using "crime" in that one.

You're trying to construct a general rule from something that is not a general rule. Idioms are specifically NOT general rules; they are very specific rules for some particular circumstance.

"The new law makes it a crime to..."

"The new law makes it plain that..."

It's like saying:

I am capable of
I have the capability to

Here, I'm saying the same thing (in terms of meaning), but the two different constructions require different prepositions, and we're just supposed to have that memorized.

There are thousands and thousands of idioms in any language - you aren't going to memorize them all. Worry about the ones that have been shown to be tested on the official GMAT. Study the idioms from OG, GMATPrep, etc, and leave it at that!