It should not be closed, and shopping list questions should be allowed.
The value represented by shopping list answers is not shorter lived than answers to technical questions about curently existing products.
Shopping list questions do not inspire more argument than answers to technical questions. Answers to technical questions inspire plenty of argument, and all that arguing has tremendous value - it brings important points to light.
A set of answers to a shopping list question does not educate people less than a set of answers to a technical question about an existing product. The question "What's out there, that could help me deal with this technical need I have, that I would do well to be aware of?" is just as valid and valuable as asking "what am I doing wrong in this bit of config text?" if not more valid and valuable!
Asking shopping list questions is not by nature lazier than asking a technical question. You're just as likely to have failed to do enough homework when you ask "what's wrong with this bit of config xml" as you are likely to have failed to do enough homework when you ask a shopping list question. And there's nothing wrong with being lazy anyway! If I can spend a few seconds and point someone in a helpful direction with a comment or an answer to shopping list question that saves them several minutes of sifting through a bunch of much less focused and relevant information for them, I'm more than happy to do that!
The idea that questions that are to be considered "on topic" should have a single correct answer is ridiculous. The set of technical questions that have a single, correct answer is tiny (compared with the set that don't) and relatively trivial; almost any technical question that isn't trivial will have a number of opinions around it. One of the huge benefits of Stack Exchange sites is that answers that people in the community find more valueable get voted up more. A set of shopping list answers with votes from the community for each one has tremendous value, as does the information brought to light by all the "arguments" around them. And it's a thing that is not necessarily always all that easy to find anywhere else.
Stack Exchange sites are a way for the community of techies to communicate with each other. You can ask practically any question of a generally technical nature and have a conversation with someone who knows something about what you're asking about, in the comments, in a matter of minutes. There is no other place on the Internet where that can be accomplished anywhere near as well.
Closing and removing questions or answers doesn't add any value, it just stifles and hinders incredibly valuable and important lines of communication. Ok, there's value in organizing things - so move stuff around. If this answer isn't in the right place, then move it to the right place. If doing that isn't easily accomplished by the tools that the site gives moderators, well, there's a new feature suggestion for the Stack Exchange developers. Yeah, it probably isn't in the right place either, but I'm out of time for this activity, now.
We The People who Use Stack Exchange barely have time to communicate at all, let alone find the right place and the right way to do it. If you have more self-directed time than the vast majority of us do then congratulations and bless your heart for using it here. Please don't penalize all the rest of us for not being in that position.
