I think that's perfectly justified. A near majority of questions here (loose stats) are clearly in the deep end of the pool. Better to tell them to get out before they drown.

I think everybody deserves help, especially if they don't know how to ask for it. IMHO the right way to respond to a "bad" question is to guide it to be a good question, not to reject it. Not everybody appreciates this or understands that the greater goal of this and similar sites is to be a persistent store of knowledge. Be forgiving in what you hear and rigorous in what you say.

Not only does GOOG love StackX properties, they actively harvest the active ones.

I've never imagined serverfault would replace search engines but it tends to have a very useful effect of concentrating answers, whether they are original or copied by a more skilled searcher, and these are then indexed and the whole question becomes a little more accessible to somebody who doesn't even know how to accurately describe what their problem is.