Does this site support questions asking to evaluate alternative solutions to a problem and if yes, how can I ask them?

Question

This is how I tend to use this site (and other SE sites):

1. I work.
2. I run into a problem I cannot solve myself (at least not easily, without devoting very substantial time or effort I cannot now devote). For example:
   1. I don't know how to progress in my task.
   2. I can see more than one way to progress, but cannot evaluate which way to choose. _{(flip a coin?)}
   3. I cannot explain to myself why something that seems true is indeed true.
   4. Etc.
3. I need help of someone more knowledgeable/experienced than me to progres!
4. Type the question into an appropriate SE site
5. Does the Similar questions box show this question? If yes, read. If not, ask.

From then... this is a coin flip for me. I'm notoriously incapable of grasping the fine lines between an on-topic question and off-topic question. Very often there are two very similar questions, one of which is highly upvoted, while the other one is severly downvoted and/or closed - and I cannot spot the difference!

Thus, unfortunately, I cannot craft my question so that it would be well-received, nor can I predict whether my question will be well-received or not.

Same thing happened with this question: How important is it to have a consistent technological stack?

According to early feedback, my question is off-topic because it is an opinion-based question.

But I bring up many examples of questions that seem to me to be similar in nature (go for solution X or Y, and why?) that were well-received on this site. Two examples of my own questions: If-else ladder that is supposed to catch all conditions - should a redundant final clause be added? and Pointers vs keeping indices of objects stored in a central (associative) array?

Granted - the question I'm talking about now is a little bit... peculiar. In short: I am facing two possible solutions, X and Y, out of which X takes magnitudes of time more than Y (rewrite half of existing code to a different programming language vs dont rewrite). I have a problem because I find myself having a gag reflex towards the easier solution of these two... I ask myself: Why do I hate Y so much? - the answer is: Because I want consistency. If I use technology stack ${Stack} in my project, I should be using it for all problems solvable by this stack. Ugh... Does my reasoning make sense? I start suspecting I may have fallen to the trap of all-or-nothing thinking: Either everything must be written in JS, or everything must be written in .Net, I must not write half of my project in JS and the other half in .Net.

Did I? Is here a real problem or am I making up a problem where there, in fact, there is none?

The problem seems to reduce to the question: Am I correct in wanting maximum consistency in the technological stack I use? - I cannot answer this myself, I need help of someone more knowledgeable and experienced! => Ask. _{Be told this question is a bad fit because it is subjective.}

I read this: The real borderline for "Opinion based" in Software Engineering And also the opinion-based part of this: Why was my question closed or down voted?

I now have a hypothesis: My question is opinion-based and off-topic precisely because I cannot describe an actual problem, rather, I need to ask if X is indeed a problem. Is this correct? If I have a question when I'm unsure if the problem actually exists of if I'm making up a problem where there is in fact none, is such a Q automatically off-topic?

Answer 1

With regards to the question How important is it to have a consistent technological stack?, that question can be paraphrased as

I currently have a technology stack with technology A for the front-end and technology B for the backend. Recent developments in the technologies have made it possible to use either for both the front-end and the backend.

Should I rewrite my entire application in technology A or technology B.

This looks very much like you have fallen into the trap of all-or-nothing thinking and you are asking us to make a choice that we can't make for you.

Suppose user X would have answered that you must use technology A because it is best and user Y answered the same for technology B, how much would that have helped you in making your choice? That is what the close reason "primarily opinion based" means.