I occasionally see things getting closed on the various SE sites, which I don't think should be closed. While usually the questions are similar, they aren't exact -- exact duplicate means exact duplicate -- not similar question.

Some of the justification I often see is "well, the answers in these two places are the same, so the questions must also be the same" -- but this justification doesn't make sense. If you're closing the question as a duplicate, the answers should have no bearing. For example, if I ask these questions:

• Where can one cash in Lottery tickets?
• Where can one buy eggs?
• Where can one get a good cup of coffee around here?
• What serves as the center of town?
• What is your most successful business?
• What's the most crime riddled establishment in this town?

and the answer to all of these could be "the corner store." But the questions are very different.

Why does this phenomenon (using answers as justification for calling questions duplicates) exist, and should steps be taken to discourage it from occurring?

Real world example:
@Nikita + @phwd: Example: Why can C++ functors be preferable to objects with named methods? (Not closed yet but it's well on it's way)