Stack overflow was hugely popular before their draconian moderation. And I use it less because of it. The most valuable questions I have as a developer are things like "what are they trade offs between using system.js or webpack". "How should I use flux Or redux to get the most benefit?" Or "how does the js build ecosystem work". These are much more valuable in my opinion then "I got error 4602 how do I solve it?".

I've seen both. The "draconian moderation" is also the reason for their success.

That's highly debatable. I use it despite the moderation. Half the questions I get answers for are "closed, off topic".

If it wasn't for the moderation, it'd be a swamp of terrible just like the forums of old.

Many people feel otherwise. Anyway it's way off topic to the op.