Depending on who is asking, the intention behind such framing is different. For someone in a leadership position, the point is to open up dialog and make folks

Depending on who is asking, the intention behind such framing is different. For someone in a leadership position, the point is to open up dialog and make folks comfortable enough to ask questions without them feeling they're at risk of humiliation or judgement. For others it may be to signal politeness and deference to the speaker. Whatever the case, there are more effective, more genuine phrasings to use than to literally invoke "stupidity".