Other people have already contributed answers that comment on the specific question that you asked about, so I'm going to talk about something else a bit more general that I think is extremely important.
I think some SOF guys could be a bit more patient with the guy and at least direct him, and maybe not vote against a question before the guy can improve it according to comments.
Being patient with people is a good thing, you're right about that. So is directing people to do the right thing, and leaving constructive suggestions in the comments. Keep doing all of those things!
But putting the question on hold is also the right thing to do. The idea is that the question gets put on hold while the user makes the edits, before the question gets a bunch of answers that such edits may make irrelevant or obsolete. Putting the question on hold also reinforces to the asker that the larger community stands behind and agrees with the comments from the one or two people who left these suggestions on how to improve (and adds a big banner that contains some additional, more general suggestions).
In fact, this is exactly the thinking behind the recent UI change from "closed" to "put on hold". While "closed" has a note of finality to it, "put on hold" emphasizes the temporariness of the condition. It helps to encourage people that they can edit their question according to the provided suggestions and that it can be re-opened afterwards.
So it's not out of a lack of patience or a cold heart that we vote to put questions on hold. It's exactly what the system is designed for. It would only be rude and cold-hearted to delete the question outright. That would be robbing the person of a chance to improve the question, effectively giving up on them. We only do that for things that are clearly spam.
For more detailed thoughts on this, see my answer here.
As far as downvoting goes, that's up to each individual person. If you don't think the question deserves a downvote, then don't cast one. But others have the right to make different decisions about their votes. Neither perspective is right or wrong.