> This reminds me of the redditors who post questions about mundane government services where it would be quicker to simply call the agency in question and ask.

Wow oh wow does this depend on the agency, and depend on the question, and assumes you even know how to ask the question the right way. And I think considering that, the analogy operates quite well. People often don't know how to ask about medical things, they just describe symptoms ("platelet count" probably isn't a highly googled term for self-diagnosis). People do similar things when they have a problem with government and don't know where to turn, may not know which agency to contact, or how navigate that agency's phone trees, etc.