@jsltwl I am having the same exact issues filing MFS in a community property state (California). I am still unclear on the response provided by @TurboTaxCarol on how to answer the TurboTax questions. I also contacted TurboTax support and they were unable to assist.
Matter of fact, my CPA filed my 2018 return using the EXACT method you provided in your example. We received an IRS CP2000 notice because the IRS was confused how the numbers reported on the 1040 don't match the tax forms. Examples:
-Wages from Employer W-2 doesn't match 1040 Line 1 (Wages, salaries, tips, etc.)
-Tax Withheld from Employer W-2 doesn't match 1040 Line 16 (Federal income tax withheld from Forms W-2 and 1099)
-1040-INT does not match Line 2b (Taxable Interest)
My CPA responded back to the IRS clarifying the MFS in a community property state rules and all was good. He advised that the IRS doesn't know how to process these MFS in community property states and every now then, he'll get this notice and have to provide an explanation. I reported this issue to the IRS Taxpayer Advocate service and they are currently reviewing it.
That being said, did you (or anybody else) figure out how to populate TurboTax? If not, I'll look into other tax software as I don't find TurboTax intuitive for our situation. I tried to just edit the forms directly but as one person mentioned some fields are locked so it's not possible.
