Simple questions are free and make everyone's lives better. "Hey are you sure you need X? Have you tried anything else?" (or something to that nature) takes seconds to type. The answer isn't much longer, "Yes, I tried A, B, and C but they don't seem to be appropriate for my problem. X meets my requirements but I can't get it to work" (again, or similar). It's beneficial to the responder (don't spend unnecessary time answering the wrong question), beneficial to the asker (perhaps it really IS an XY problem, and you can help show them a better way, or if it isn't they don't get frustrated with someone mistakenly answering Y), and better to all future visitors who now understand enough context to determine if reading further is going to help or not.