They seem to be saying the right things to the right audience at the right time. Kind of like how politicians promise things they can never live up to. Maybe y

They seem to be saying the right things to the right audience at the right time. Kind of like how politicians promise things they can never live up to. Maybe you need to view SO in a different light in order to understand its usefulness. The SO site itself can be considered broadly as a solve-coding-problem site. If you want more broad and debatable topics to be involved in your thinking, go with a specialized-forum. I think the wisdom behind their strict policy applies when (say) a question that was answered in 2011 about some linux software issue provides an exact solution that can be applied by another 10/100/1000 more other people that come across this issue in the future. Therefore, it solves the problem and you move on.