One of the strong points of the Stack Exchange system is that the best answer, as judged by the community, floats to the top. And a person seeking an answer to the question should be able to get all that is required from the topmost answer.

So there's nothing wrong if answers are edited often, even if it is to incorporate material, with acknowledgement if necessary, from other answers.

I think editing answers other than the topmost and usually the accepted answer may often, but certainly not always, not be worth the effort.

One of the strong points of the Stack Exchange system is that the best answer, as judged by the community, floats to the top. And a person seeking an answer to the question should be able to get all that is required from the topmost answer.

So there's nothing wrong if answers are edited often, even if it is to incorporate material, with acknowledgement if necessary, from other answers.

I think editing answers other than the topmost and usually the accepted answer may often, but certainly not always, not be worth the effort.

Editing this a few days later ...

I'm having difficulty with the argument that there can be several answers that cannot be "merged", if you will, with the existing top answer. Again, I'm sticking to this specific question and don't want my position to be extended or generalized as has been done in a comment below.

Now, in general terms, if a question does generate several distinct answers, in terms of content, it would appear to me that such a question could be worded better.