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Why are late answers from new users reviewed?

This simple question might appear somewhere in the meta FAQ or questions, but after searching for several minutes I can't find the logic clearly explained.

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Anyone, not just new users, that answers an old question should be contributing to the existing body of knowledge already present with the other existing answers. Throwing it into the review queue is [in theory] a good way to check that. It also helps tease out gems and weed out poor answers.

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    That makes sense: probably this prevents hundreds of "Thanks!" or "Me too" answers from accumulating over time. (Thanks!)
    – Douglas B. Staple
    Commented Sep 24, 2012 at 2:11
  • Like I said, that's the theory. But there is still 22K of these posts to be reviewed...
    – Makoto
    Commented Sep 24, 2012 at 2:12
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    If a question is old enough to warrant a new answer appearing on the review queue, is it worth showing the would-be-answerer a small warning to suggest this is an old question and the contribution should be significant (and will be reviewed)?
    – Duncan Jones
    Commented Oct 23, 2012 at 18:03
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The "Late Answers" review page is described with the following phrase.

Review late answers from new users

On Drupal Answers, the Stack Exchange site where I am moderator, many of those late answers are:

  • Related questions written as answers
  • Requests for more information necessary to answer the question
  • Comments from users having the same problem, asking to the OP if they found a solution
  • Spam

While not all the late answers are like this, between the late answers written by new users you can find answers that should be flagged as "not an answer." There are then answers that are only spam, which generally are written for old questions, even if I have also seen spammer using a question for spamming, and adding more spam as answers.
That is the reason why there is the Late Answers review page.

If then the post is a perfectly valid answer, nothing needs to be done (or the answer could be up-voted).

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    Exactly. You'll find a much higher proportion of follow-on questions being posted as answers to older questions than more recent ones. Additionally, popular and highly voted older questions tend to attract spam at a higher rate than questions asked within the last month or so.
    – Brad Larson Mod
    Commented Sep 24, 2012 at 16:42
  • Related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8695/… - was basically requesting a feature to fulfill this role.
    – ivan_pozdeev
    Commented Sep 2, 2016 at 0:26

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