But if they’re going to ask the question anyway, what’s so hard about just typing “Hi,…” then ask whatever rambling or imprecise thing they’re going to say before hitting enter? No one is requiring it to be concise; it’s just that they got our attention with the “Hi” and now we’re waiting five minutes for the question to be asked, instead of the question, in whatever form, appearing without the preliminaries.
They could do it if it was presented to them as a norm, "this is the way we like to do messaging around here." Not everyone spontaneously comes up with the best, most effective way to do things. Sometimes they need to be taught.
