Why does everyone skip the 'ask for clarification' step?

I've seen three separate posts this week where people just answer a question they clearly misunderstood, and the whole thread goes sideways. If you're not 100% sure what someone's asking, why not just stop and ask them to reword it? Has anyone else noticed this getting worse lately, or am I just in the wrong sub-threads?

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holly_price21d ago

Oh I feel you on this one, it's honestly frustrating to watch whole threads go off the rails because nobody just says "wait, what do you mean?" I've seen it happen way more in the last year or so too, like everyone's in such a hurry to be the first with an answer that they skip the whole understanding part. The worst is when the OP comes back confused and someone still doubles down on their wrong guess instead of just asking a quick follow up question.