More often than not, newbie questions on SO are XY questions, so I guess it creates a bias. I actually got downvoted many times for answering the actual questio

More often than not, newbie questions on SO are XY questions, so I guess it creates a bias. I actually got downvoted many times for answering the actual question when most people thought it was the wrong way to achieve the broader goal, even though it was a correct answer. So usually if I do it, I try to answer the question, and add my opinion on what the better approach might be.