I blame the unpaid volunteers to some extent. Sometimes they're overly rude, not always, but we've all seen it. You never have that problem with AI. You can ask all the questions you want and it will at least try to answer them.
AI can do the same thing - it'll probably pretty up the words more, but it's perfectly capable of fuzzy matching a "duplicate" question, passive aggressively telling you to sod off, and telling you that some questions are wrong to ask.
"Yes, that was a duplicate question, but that's absolutely fine! I'm here to help with any questions you have, whether they're duplicates or not. If you have any more questions or need information on any topic, please feel free to ask."
Agree completely. They did the same thing with discourse. The type of thinking I classify as "I'm smarter than my users".
Draconian limits on even slightly adjacent questions in SO are basically the same thinking that led them to prevent posting on a Discourse thread _in private instances_ unless your answer has the number of words they think you should use.
And they of course justify it by saying their "research" says this will create a "healthier" community which is of course bullshit.