The reason it was closed so quickly and harshly (several downvotes) is not really intrinsic to the question, but mainly due to the fact that it appeared essentially together with another question of this type on codes in papers (which is at +8 at the moment). This was a bit too much for people disliking this type of broderline on-topic/somewhat off-topic questions. An additional problem with the question might be that it is slightly unfocused.

Perhaps a solution could be to ask the questioner to somewhat shorten/focus the question and then consider reopening.

Personally I do not care a lot about the content of this question (but I care a bit); there might be answers I could find interesting. The main reason I argue in its favor is that, yes community moderation cannot be toally consistent, but until I hear a good argument to the contrary my impression remains that this was essentially solely unfortunate timing, and this seems a bit unfair (for lack of a better word).