The thesis of this answer may also drive away a certain type of user as well.

While I totally understand your feelings, I have to tell, that MY made me open books that otherwise I would have probably never opened. I know it can be sometimes stressful, but it's not just to annoy users. (And I try to be nice, when requesting a source.)

What policies/rules would you want to implement to achieve this vision?

No specific policies/rules that I can think of at the moment. It seems, to me, more of an attitude issue. Which, to be honest, is something that can't (realistically) be legislated. Rather, it is something that evolves over time based on many different things. More something to think about than to "force".

Are there different initial conditions then? Same rules, same initial conditions, same outcome (I'd expect). I'm willing to see something different on this site; I just haven't seen anyone actually doing anything towards that end.

I'm going to poke at this to try and get you to refine your idea. This 'middle level' class of users that you feel weren't able to participate at Mi Yodeya but will be able to here, how do you see them participating? Is it questions or answers? If the issue for them on Mi Yodeya was, as you indicate, expectation of sourcing, what different expectation do you expect to find here? On Mi Yodeya a sourced claim was generally seen as superior to an unsourced claim since nobody knows you to trust you

Do you imagine here people with enough points would gain an ability to not source since they are indeed considered trustworthy? Or perhaps sourcing should be discouraged as it clogs a post? Or is there going to be a new area of scope that will be on topic that this category of people will be better suited to answering? Perhaps a different definition of what constitutes an "answer" to a question?

I'm open to hearing these suggestions, but nothing is going to be different magically because we want it to. If you reward better quality posts, then the people who are better at writing them will get rewarded more. That's how the gamification works. If you want something different you have to change the reward structure, change the definition of quality, or change who you expect to participate.

I don't know much about DIY/Home Improvement and Retrocomputing at SE, but can you explain what they did that made you feel more welcome there? Could it be that you are simply more of an expert at those subjects? (I don't know you at all to know what you're an expert at.)

@AA I hear what you are saying - you are asking reasonable questions. I'm just not 100% sure of the answers! As far as comparison to the other sites I mentioned: I am not an expert in either of them but I have personal experience plus I learned from others on the site and elsewhere. If anything, my Jewish education and ongoing Jewish involvement (shul/community, etc.) is far more than anything relating to those other sites. I certainly do appreciate well-sourced answers - I don't want to

discourage comprehensive, well-sourced, well-written answers. There is just something about my interactions on Mi Yodeya - and what I saw with other people's Q&A there - that left a bad taste. I can't really put a finger on it at the moment. But it was a much less "Haimishe" feeling than some other SE sites. (Though arguably far superior to the main SO site! In a lot of ways.)