The trouble is, how often do you see a Reddit discussion show up in a Google search with helpful information? This is a rarity for me, and I don't think it has

The trouble is, how often do you see a Reddit discussion show up in a Google search with helpful information? This is a rarity for me, and I don't think it has anything to do with how Google sorts results. The same voting system prioritizes pithy memes and snark comments over helpful discussion. While you might have to wait longer, I would argue that you are far better off asking a question on a dedicated forum vs. a subreddit. Fora have their own problems, but voting systems typically seem to encourage low quality content to gather imaginary points, hacker news is the only site with voting I've seen that stays tolerable.