Your second point is pretty spot on. Asking for technical help in Drupal forums almost guarantees a response from a well-meaning non-technical person who likel

Your second point is pretty spot on. Asking for technical help in Drupal forums almost guarantees a response from a well-meaning non-technical person who likely can't help you. Asking in a module's issue queue can be hit or miss. If it's a major project, you'll get a response and it'll be "this has been asked before, here's the link." That's great. More likely you'll never hear a response. #drupal-support can have some very helpful people on it. But once your question gets beyond general use of the major modules, the odds of getting useful help approach zero.