I recently asked a question about a combination of disks & server which is not vendor-supported (link here), in short adding EOL disks from another vendor to servers currently in use. The setup was to be used for a low-cost dev/test environment.

Although it got answered successfully, it also got several downvotes and upvotes, and a comment discussion about the validity of questions for vendor-unsupported configurations. It seems there could be a confusion between unsupported and unauthorized.

Moreover, in my opinion tech questions about designing systems in a non-vendor predicted way should be valid as long as they cover a valid business need. It seems that to a lot of members, using a setup not offered by presales is not a valid question.

I strongly disagree with dumbing-down IT role to do just procurements and scheduled maintenance. As an engineer I consider it my obligation to explore ways to minimize company costs as long as the risks are explored and accepted. I'm also feeling I'm arguing the obvious. When you design something for business, vendor support is just another (important) parameter to consider, not what dictates the design. And for those systems which are offered by the vendors, there is always the official "vendor support" channel.