> This tallies with my memory of feeling that site moderators had gone on a power trip by closing legitimate questions.

Respectfully: outsiders like the author of this piece are not the ones entitled to decide whether a question is "legitimate", or "valid" (another term I see used all the time by people who have no understanding either of Stack Overflow's standards or its goals).

Reference reading:

What is Stack Overflow’s goal? (https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/254770)

How much research effort is expected of Stack Overflow users? (https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/261592)

Question Close Reasons - Definitions and Guidance (https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/417476)

How long should we wait for a poster to clarify a question before closing? (https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/260263)

A satirical answer to "The rudeness on Stack Overflow is too damn high" (https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/262791/_/309018#309...)

What is the point of closing questions for details and clarity, debugging details, needs more focus, or very low quality? (https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/405519)

Why should I help close "bad" questions that I think are valid, instead of helping the OP with an answer? (https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/429808)

Why is the rate of positively scoring questions and answers steadily declining? (https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/393032)

When is Stack Overflow going to stop demonizing the quality-concerned users who have made the site a success? (https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/366858)

Is ChatGPT and LLM killing Stack Overflow (https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/430994)