because someone believed an ANSWER on a different question answered my question

Yeah that is actually their official position. Your question is duplicate if an answer elsewhere might answer it, which is clearly absurd. Essentially they think "what's 1+3?" is a duplicate of "what's 2+2?".

I think fundamentally they gamified moderation too well, and for many people they turned the site into a mod-maxing game, which obviously makes it an abysmal place to be for normal users.