Software recommendations tend to pass because they're often 'how' to do things rather than a straight off "What do I need?". Shopping recommendations are bad because firstly, they go stale (software doesn't in most cases), and they indicate a certain lack of homework.
I can dust off a two year old software rec question, and most of the software there would still be available in some fashion. I can't really say the same for hardware, if the answer is specific enough.
I'd note I'm 'guilty''guilty' of a few software rec questions, but generally they're useful/obscure bits of software, and they apparently don't exist (yet). In the one situation where the softwareIn the one situation where the software was found, it was useful in at least 2-3 other questions.
I'd say a properly asked software question is nothing like a hardware rec question.