To address this:

Why aren't questions like these just deleted instead of being closed?

They are, actually deleted - but after some time has passed. That "time" varies from a week to a month to couple of months, but I do spring cleaning every now and then, and I know for a fact that few high rep users put in their delete votes.( 10k+ users can check existing deletion votes from here, or the link that Dennis provides

We don't do insta-deletes, except in cases where it's blatant spam or egregiously off topic - the intention is to provide the OP/community the option to revise the post so that it's acceptable.

To address this:

Why aren't questions like these just deleted instead of being closed?

They are, actually deleted - but after some time has passed. That "time" varies from a week to a month to couple of months, but I do spring cleaning every now and then, and I know for a fact that few high rep users put in their delete votes.( 10k+ users can check existing deletion votes from here, or the link that Dennis provides

We don't do insta-deletes, except in cases where it's blatant spam or egregiously off topic - the intention is to provide the OP/community the option to revise the post so that it's acceptable.

To address this:

Why aren't questions like these just deleted instead of being closed?

They are, actually deleted - but after some time has passed. That "time" varies from a week to a month to couple of months, but I do spring cleaning every now and then, and I know for a fact that few high rep users put in their delete votes.( 10k+ users can check existing deletion votes from here, or the link that Dennis provides

We don't do insta-deletes, except in cases where it's blatant spam or egregiously off topic - the intention is to provide the OP/community the option to revise the post so that it's acceptable.

To address this:

Why aren't questions like these just deleted instead of being closed?

They are, actually deleted - but after some time has passed. That "time" varies from a week to a month to couple of months, but I do spring cleaning every now and then, and I know for a fact that few high rep users put in their delete votes.( 10k+ users can check existing deletion votes from here, or the link that Dennis provides

We don't do insta-deletes, except in cases where it's blatant spam or egregiously off topic - the intention is to provide the OP/community the option to revise the post so that it's acceptable.