Part of the problem IMHO is, that SO tries to be two things at once. It says, it shall be a help portal for programmers, but at the same time they want to be so

Part of the problem IMHO is, that SO tries to be two things at once. It says, it shall be a help portal for programmers, but at the same time they want to be something like Wikipedia for programmers. Both things do not fit well together. When you want to help others, you must allow any question that is earnest. When you want to be an encyclopedia, you have to filter questions very harshly. Sadly, together with this, the self-moderation feature of SO attract people that are more interested in enforcing rules, instead of helping people.