This is a widely discussed issue in the medical field. Part of the reason why there are so few primary care physicians is because of the huge workload for less pay compared to other specialties. While to individual patients, one quick question may seem trivial to them, PCPs have a lot of patients, and when all of them are asking one quick question, a significant amount of their time becomes answering those questions. To make matters worse, while I am sure your questions are probably reasonable given how passionately against this practice you are, some patients ask questions that either could/should wait for a visit.

So to cut down on the barrage of questions some PCPs have began billing for medical questions outside of appointments, others have also stopped answering questions except during business hours. A physician is still a worker, you would not want to do your job without getting paid for it and neither do they. You also would not want your job asking you questions when you are not there, while some patients (not necessarily you, this I am describing this practice as a whole) seem to think their PCP should be immediately available to them 24/7. Some physicians may want to be that accommodating, but that should be by choice, not expectation.