For this forum I don't view the result as the only benefit. Obviously as we don't have a "best answer" here. But different threads could result to the same answer but start from different perspectives. That would make sense as people view things differently and hence people will also Google them differently.
I don't think askers care if it is a dup question. In some ways noobies might even feel like it's not a dup when it truly is. I am more of the link back to the duplicate question rather than just delete the thread. I think it's crazy that they would remove a question when they determine it's a dup.
When your frustrated and confused they just ask the question. They might search a little or not at all.
I have always felt a hostility in SO as well. Buy I mostly dont answer anything there because of their ranking system restrictions.
Reddit has the same feeling. Everyone is fighting to be the best voted response it sickens me.
On the other hand....when I Google something most of the time the response is SO. But is sure as shit won't ask or answer on their site.
What I find funny about these structures are I often will use not the top voted answer. So the whole competitive thing is dumb. I like here how everyone is a team and works together and try to give the asker the best answer without competing with each other