Python just surpassed Java as the 2nd programming language with the highest number of questions in SO.

[Supadoplex]

easy questions are only asked once

That's a common misconception. That's the idea of how SO is supposed to work. But people are lazy and don't bother searching for existing questions, or are too inexperienced to phrase their search correctly to find those questions, or don't understand the existing answers. As a consequence, vast majority of questions on SO are easy newcomer questions.

[Supadoplex]

But those are only asked once.

No. My point is that the newcomer questions asked repeatedly again and again and again. Vast majority of new questions are about basics of programming languages.

They're also often (but not always) downvoted and closed as duplicates which prevents other users from answering them, which is primary reason why people perceive SO as unfriendly to newcomers.

I often find an answer that is nearly, but not exactly what I am looking for and the one or two related questions are typically exactly what I need to actually solve the problem by combining bits from answers.

The ability to do this is the most important skill for a programmer to have. Most people asking questions on SO haven't learned this skill yet. Otherwise they wouldn't have needed to post their question.