It's definitely a thing, other forums with similar goals suffer from this as well. For instance I know a math forum (not on Stackexchange) with exactly the same

It's definitely a thing, other forums with similar goals suffer from this as well. For instance I know a math forum (not on Stackexchange) with exactly the same (implicit) code of conduct. It works really well if you have a sharp question and obviously invested some time yourself but just are stuck. And now you describe exactly where and why you are stuck. On the other hand, if the problem is open, it's less likely someone else had a similar one before. In fact it might take quite some time to analyze it and for the helper it's not clear whether it's afterwards possible to write an answer that brings the OP forward. Thus SO might end up consisting of tons of unanswered questions or answers of low quality - because they are just answered by point seekers who don't care if it truly helps. IMHO the best place for this is IRC, dev mailing lists or local meetups.