Oof, I do see a lot of those “No!” decisions in many support forums… 
To some degree, it may always come down to more experienced folks and staff tidying things up.
I wonder if the “reply as linked topic” option could be made more obvious, as in Linca’s suggestion above, but only at a designated trust level. It might just confuse the average drive-by help-seeker – but if it appeared for, say, TL2 users, they might see the utility and know when to use it.