I think you have provided much excellent food for thought in your, as always, well written synopsis so I hope you will not mind me quickly summarising what I took from it.

To me it says "Don't just give us a Question from left field, start first by summarising as clearly and pertinently as you can, what you have done in the way of research to try and answer your own question, and then ask us your focussed question. This will not only stop us simply retracing your steps, but the story behind your question gives you a much better chance of attracting our interest and skills to it."

If anyone is interested in how and why this great Stack Exchange format came into being I strongly recommend this hangout by its founder Jeff Atwood in which he emphasises the importance of a story to each question that "sells" it to potential answerers, and then "gardening" your question to review it as more details (that often come from comments) assume relevance.

I think you have provided much excellent food for thought in your, as always, well written synopsis so I hope you will not mind me quickly summarising what I took from it.

To me it says "Don't just give us a Question with little context, start first by summarising as clearly and pertinently as you can, what you have done in the way of research to try and answer your own question, and then ask us your focussed question. This will not only stop us simply retracing your steps, but the story behind your question gives you a much better chance of attracting our interest and skills to it."

If anyone is interested in how and why this great Stack Exchange format came into being I strongly recommend this hangout by its founder Jeff Atwood in which he emphasises the importance of a story to each question that "sells" it to potential answerers, and then "gardening" your question to review it as more details (that often come from comments) assume relevance.