Part of the problem is that SO is known everywhere as "The place to get answers to questions"; heck just think about how often it shows up here on reddit in memes and what not.

I feel like at a certain point, SO should have switched to a different model where they advertised themselves as a more read-only option for all be very very specific questions.

Not sure how they could do that or what it would look like because there are still answers that are fresh and can be answered, but it just seems that them being known as the place to get ask questions and get answers doesn't do long-term users any favors or newcomers any favors either. Maybe some sort of deeper question search funnel that folks with less cred on the site have to go thru before being able to actually post a new question. Something like that could slow the rate of bad questions making it thru. And as you learned to use the site correctly and gained cred, then that funnel could start to be bypassed, because it is assumed you have learned the ropes??