I think there are two types of OPs who are looking for alternatives:

1. The architects
2. The gardeners

The architects plan everything ahead, they have imagined everything about what sort of final product they want, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. So, their question is going to be specific because they know exactly what they want.

However, the gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fat seed or hybrid seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. So their question is going to be broader or vague, whichever term you prefer.

AND All the high reputation contributors on this site seem to support the architect kinds only. And that is where I disagree with all of them.

The gardeners are also looking for an alternative recommendation, regardless of how broad or opinion based it is. And as the name of this website suggests, they have every right to do so. For such questions, Recommendations are also going to be much more opinion based and nothing is wrong with that. And once somebody posts an answer, the OP can start making conversation with him/her and hence the gardener will slowly be able to form a picture based upon that conversation.

In fact, I would argue that the gardeners should be more encouraged on this site than the architects. Because since the architects know exactly where they face problem, they can just post their questions on stack-overflow; they don't even need to look for software recommendation site. Its those gardeners who need more recommendations since all they have is a little bit of impression on what they want to do. And upon engaging with those with experiences on related fields they will be able to ask specific questions on stackoverflow.

So how should a gardener ask for alternative Y for X?

1. Post a scenario/link to where he got his impression of Y from.
2. Write a little bit about what part from above number 1 he expects Y software would do.
3. Write what he didn't like about X but not necessarily.

And THAT's IT.

The main motive of a gardener is to get to have conversation with somebody with experiences.

And if this website doesn't allow the gardeners, this website has no use at all because the architects are able to do ask specifically in stack-overflow itself.

I think there are two types of OPs who are looking for alternatives:

1. The architects
2. The gardeners

The architects plan everything ahead, they have imagined everything about what sort of final product they want, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. So, their question is going to be specific because they know exactly what they want.

However, the gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fat seed or hybrid seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. So their question is going to be broader or vague, whichever term you prefer.

AND All the high reputation contributors on this site seem to support the architect kinds only. And that is where I disagree with all of them.

The gardeners are also looking for an alternative recommendation, regardless of how broad or opinion based it is. And as the name of this website suggests, they have every right to do so. For such questions, Recommendations are also going to be much more opinion based and nothing is wrong with that. And once somebody posts an answer, the OP can start making conversation with him/her and hence the gardener will slowly be able to form a picture based upon that conversation.

In fact, I would argue that the gardeners should be more encouraged on this site than the architects. Because since the architects know exactly where they face problem, they can just post their questions on stack-overflow; they don't even need to look for software recommendation site. Its those gardeners who need more recommendations since all they have is a little bit of impression on what they want to do. And upon engaging with those with experiences on related fields they will be able to ask specific questions on stackoverflow.

So how should a gardener ask for alternative Y for X?

1. Post a scenario/link to where he got his impression of Y from.
2. Write a little bit about what part from above number 1 he expects Y software would do.
3. Write what he didn't like about X but not necessarily.

And THAT's IT.

The main motive of a gardener is to get to have conversation with somebody with experiences.

And if this website doesn't allow the gardeners, this website has no use at all because the architects are able to do ask specifically in stack-overflow itself. And the architects don't need to pose their question as a recommendation question, they can simply rephrase their question to a problem specific question. For example, if the architect doesn't know whether functionality f is available in software X or not, he can simply ask; how to do f in software X? or what is the best way to do f in X?

Its the gardeners that need this site more than architects.

And yes, the gardeners are looking for personal enlightenment, but that doesn't mean that it is going to be limited to themselves. There will probably be many other gardeners who have similar motivation.