Should this answer have been split into 5 different answers?

Question

This answer to the "Finding ways to “nerf” a PC that is too strong with base stats, after a long period of playing" question raises 5 different points which are 5 different methods to solve the problem. They all don't seem to be compatible, it seems to me that each solution is supposed to be used alone.

I feel like if it had been posted as 5 distinct answers, I would have upvoted some of them, downvoted some of them, and probably kept the rest untouched, but I cannot do it because their scores are currently not separate.

Is this situation OK? What, if anything, can be done to solve it if it is not OK?

Answer 1

When an answer's posted, the answer rises or falls on its own merits. Unless an answer is offensive, potentially damaging, or off topic, an answer can say whatever it wants in whatever way it wants, and one of those ways certainly can be a list of solutions.

However, you don't have to like how an answer says something. I, too, tend to prefer answers that take the sniper approach (i.e. an answer that offers one good, detailed solution to the problem) to answers that take the shotgun approach (i.e. an answer that offers a bunch of short, seemingly random solutions to the problem), but my personal preference—or yours!—doesn't make one approach superior to the other, especially generally and in all circumstances.

So, yes, this situation is okay. Folks that find the answer not useful because it presents too wide a variety of solutions in too little detail without enough support can inform the user that the answer is not useful by downvoting it, and folks that find the answer useful precisely because it quickly and succinctly presents a variety of techniques that can be applied to solve the problem can inform the user that the answer is useful by upvoting it.

That does leave folks who find some of the solutions in the answer useful and other solutions in the same answer not useful unable to express their feelings indecision about the answer (except here on Meta), but, because there's no obligation to vote on every answer (or, for that matter, every question), it's totally okay to read an answer, utter a quiet Meh, not vote at all, and move on to the next answer—maybe you'll like that next one more.

Answer 2

Yes, but we don't do that here (for some reason)

Yes, multiple answers by the same user should absolutely be posted separately rather than all together in some sort of giant pile of answer. However, we don't do that here, and posting a large number of answers as a single user is looked down upon, which will result in all the posts getting downvoted unless you are very careful or your answers are very good. I don't know why we don't do that, but we don't, and you should be aware of the large potential for backlash going in.

Also, just as a note, most of the time a question seems like I ought to write several answers to it, it's too broad. A lot of the time it's fine and it's just that different answers apply in different playstyles, but most of the time it's indicating a closure-worthy problem in the question.