While I agree with most of your bold-related points, I disagree that bolding is something to be avoided in extremis.

As discussed in a comment session with a higher-rep user recently, I have learned to use bold across all SO sites as a way to make the question clear without having to read it in entirety - namely, two things will always be bolded:

1. The actual question (since it may be more specific than the headline, and is not always best-placed right at the top or right at the bottom), and
2. Anything that specifically makes it different to other questions (thereby demonstrating research).

Basically this allows a knowledgeable reader to skip most of the question and establish if they're going to be able to answer the question (or had the same experience).

While bold may be painful to some, I find that using it this way results in a faster read if you know the topic very well, and less incorrect answers, and less marks as duplicate.

That being said, based on the style of your question above, I would have used bold differently, but less bold overall, if I had been asking the question. ;-) (But not by much. :-p )

While I agree with most of your bold-related points, I disagree that bolding is something to be avoided in extremis.

As discussed in a comment session with a higher-rep user recently, I have learned to use bold across all SO sites as a way to make the question clear without having to read it in entirety - namely, two things will always be bolded:

1. The actual question (since it may be more specific than the headline, and is not always best-placed right at the top or right at the bottom), and
2. Anything that specifically makes it different to other questions (thereby demonstrating research).

Basically this allows a knowledgeable reader to skip most of the question and establish if they're going to be able to answer the question (or had the same experience).

While bold may be painful to some, I find that using it this way results in a faster read if you know the topic very well, and less incorrect answers, and less marks as duplicate.

That being said, based on the style of your question above, I would have used bold differently, but less bold overall, if I had been asking the question. ;-) (But not by much. :-p )