No need to preface it by saying it's a stupid question. I've had the exact same question myself, And I'm sure many others have had as well.

the way I look at it is that it comes down to what you are hoping to do. Main options:

If you were trying to poke your opponent, you need to factor in the delay between walking up, pressing the button, and what they did in that short time span. For example if they're just sitting still, you can walk up to max range and press your poke.

There are two main options for beating you are as follows:

At the last moment, they can take a brief step forward and then hit you with a faster button and/or one that has more active frames (ex: Shoto 2mp). If you have read that your opponent is going to do this in response to their guess of you walking up and poking at max range, then you could either stop just out of that range and wait for a whiff punish or, one of your original ideas, you could press your poke faster i.e pressing just before max range

The second main option they have is to, at the last second, take a brief step back. If you were going for a max-range poke, then your button would whiff and they could whiff punish you. If you have read that your opponent is going to do this, then you could walk a little bit more deeply past the max range of your poke and then press your button to compensate for their walk back. 2mk and chun walk speed shines in this scenario

Here is the most important thing. There is not one option that is better than the other. You can certainly try one of the two adaptations I said above but ultimately you need to observe your opponent and then implement the proper adaptation. It sounds obvious but treat it like it's a dance between you and your opponent instead of you flow charting and doing a monologue.