A designer failed if help is needed. usually holds for relatively-straightforward apps and real-world designs.

The issue where clear, succinct documentation is needed is complicated, enterprise applications which have expert interfaces.

I strongly disagree with the idea that computer programs should be designed so that no "help" is required. It only works in the simplest of applications.

In my opinion, a bigger issue is that most "help" dialogs are so badly written that they are pretty much useless. They are too often written by a developer who doesn't have a clear understanding of the typical use cases. When was the last time you found anything useful behind the F1 key?

I see the effects of this in freshmen and newbie developers who don't ever look at the manuals or documentation because they are used to it being non-existent or unhelpful. I hate to be saying RTFM, but I have to because reading the docs is a useful skill, unlike memorizing how a certain tool works.

Sun Sparc keyboards were useful here, with a bunch of additional separate keys on the left for Find, Cut, Copy Paste, Help, Open, etc..

Heh. Back when I had to use a Sun keyboard for years at a time, I physically removed the giant Help key because it was right next to Escape and I kept hitting it by accident. Each accidental Help would introduce an obnoxious pause as the system launched some help window that stole my focus on top of it all.