wfaulk, I think your original question is a good one. It could have been a shopping question ("what's the best linux distro?"), and we know those are OT anywhere on SE, from the famous "QA is hard, let's go shopping" post.
However, that very post notes that while "What’s the best low light point-and-shoot camera?" is a product recommendation request and therefore OT, "How do I tell which point-and-shoot cameras take good low light photos?" is a good and useful question, which should provoke good and useful answers. Your question about linux distros seems to me carefully phrased to be an excellent example of the second class of question above.
Moreover, and I don't know that I'm unique in this, I extend more latitude to users with a decent amount of rep. If someone new to the site breezes in and asks a borderline-OT/NARQ/NC/TL question, I'll probably vote to close it then and there. If someone with a couple of thousand rep asks a similar question, I'll certainly think twice, maybe leave it and come back later, wait to see how the rest of the community takes it. In some cases I've voted to reopen even after the community took against such a question.
That's because I know that an experienced user will have thought carefully before posting a borderline question, and that they likely have a good reason for doing so. I have had that same courtesy extended to me, and although SvenW noted that my question was borderline, he answered it, and the answer was absolutely invaluable to me. I am very grateful that those who could have voted to close my question stayed their hands.
I'm not saying that all who have close privileges should think the same way, but that's how I approach the very real problem stream of duplicate, product recommendation requests, and incomprehensible and unanswerable questions we face every day, whilst still trying to let the good questions swim on their merits.