What should happen to a question which the OP realised was not necessary?

Question

I came across this question today, where the OP quickly realised their mistake and stated so in the comments, however they haven't deleted the question and no other action has been taken on it (besides a downvote).

What should happen to questions like this? I looked at the "should be closed" reasons to flag it, but none of them seemed appropriate. So what is "meant to" happen with a question like this? Is it just left dangling for ever, should the OP answer their own question instead of commenting, or is there some other action to be taken?

Answer 1

There's no such thing as a stupid question. As long as it's topical, and answerable, an answer should be provided. Also, if it turns out that it was an X-Y problem, but the original question and the actual problem are answers, then both can and should be posted as answers.

Deleting questions that are valid questions on Super User just diminishes the quality of the site and the usefulness of the site. I'm sure other users have had the same problem as the OP.

Super User isn't (primarily) here to benefit the original people asking a question! It's here to benefit the thousands of others who will come by later from a Google search and get help from the question and answers.

So it is completely irrelevant whether the OP "needed" the question or found it useful or not. The main point of consideration is whether the question itself and any answers are useful to the community and on-topic. If they are, then the question should be left alone.