A typical consensus setup of like a 1/5/30 min MAs together when Price>STMA>MTMA>LTMA then its a confirmed uptrend and ladder your way in? It can appear to work for a normal trading day other than a a super choppy day that has no direction. Only problem is the typical big wicks and dont know if that's all it is or prints or not.

The answer is kind of implied in your questions.
MA based systems tend to work well in trending days and get killed in range bound (chop)

This is true for many other strategies, part of the 'trick' to make money
is to know when to do what (= aka to put what strategy on)

You can try to 'define' chop.. and do nothing in such a case

good luck