The hostility both on this site and on SO sadden me greatly. To my surprise, I discovered jut now that the SF FAQ explicitly covers "civility" under the "Etiquette" section:
Civility is required at all times; rudeness will not be tolerated.
The proper way to handle the referenced question, and any overly broad questions generally, would have been to close the question and add a comment pointing to the FAQ.
It's disingenuous to cite the FAQ as a reason to close questions while simultaneously violating the FAQ to berate and abuse others.
I think the real problem is that the SE sites won't just accept 'broad' questions. As there are many such questions with excellent (and comprehensive) answers on the various sites, it's obviously not true that the sites can't handle such questions. And it would certainly simplify a lot of people's searches for relevant info to be able to expect such questions on these sites. Why couldn't the "... bare essentials ..." question have been such an example?