Are pros and cons questions opinion based?

Question

I recently asked this question about the pros and cons of the different St-Jacques-de-Compostelle routes.

In my opinion, this isn't really opinion based as I am not asking about any judgement of those pros and cons, simply what they are (so I can judge for myself).

For example, the Camino Frances is features a good support infrastructure, but it also has a much higher density of hikers

What is the best practice in this case? Possibly a different formulation?

EDIT: The question was just closed as opinion based.

EDIT2: The question was just reopened, but I'd still like to get some consensus on what would be the better way to handle things in the future.

Answer 1

Update after the edit: wow, perfect, and it got a great answer too. Nice!

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Before the edit: The essence of the question looks fine to me, but: 1) the criteria aren't clear, and 2) it's phrased in a way that makes it look like you're asking people to write a bunch of reviews you can pick the answer to your question from, instead of just straight up asking the question.

I voted to re-open, but you could improve it by:

1) Making the criteria clearer. When you say:

My criteria include hiking difficulty, extent of the support infrastructure...

...what level of difficulty do you mean? Is your criteria for an easy hike, or a challenging one? With highly developed infrastructure, or minimal infrastructure (many people like the whole 'off the beaten track' thing)? If difficulty is your main criteria, we can't narrow options down without knowing roughly what level.

It'd also be helpful to specify what sort of sightseeing you're interested in if you can. Many travellers are open-minded and would answer "What sort of sightseeing would you like?" with "I don't know, unique things, surprise me", so we don't need details here, but if you do have a passion or appetite for, say, churches, or wildlife, or traditional farming, or whatever, tell us. You'll get better answers.

2) Make it more like a question than a review request. Put those criteria at the heart of it, make it clearly a travel problem that can be solved. This naturally narrows the scope and gives a fact-based backbone to answers: "This route has the following features which meet your criteria" not "I liked this route because..."

Your problem is I think, essentially, you want a certain balance between difficulty and sightseeing. So put that up front. For example:

Which St-Jacques-de-Compostelle pilgrimage route offers the most sightseeing while being [the level of challenge/difficulty you want]

I wish to do the St-Jacques-de-Compostelle pilgrimage. I am deciding which path would be best for me and so I am trying to understand the pros and cons of the following paths in terms of sightseeing opportunities, [ease/challenge] and being [developed/unspoilt]. If possible I'd also like some religious and cultural elements, but sightseeing and difficulty level are my main priorities.

The types of sightseeing I'm most interested in are [mountain views / historic buildings / attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion] and the level of challenge I'm looking for is [novice hiker / Class 3 or Class 4 / like 127 Hours, but both arms].

The routes I'm considering are:

• continues...

Any good answer will naturally include pros and cons.

Answer 2

I voted to close as opinion based because the criteria you mention - hiking difficulty, extent of the support infrastructure, sightseeing - are all subjective. Hiking difficulty depends on training and skill, quality of the support infrastructure depends on habits and comfort levels, sightseeing is inherently opinion-based since what is interesting to you might not be to me.

Per se, pros and cons questions are not off-topic, provided that the criteria are objective or well-defined. The question Are there still any advantages to using an Oyster card for travel in London? for example is a somewhat pros and cons questions, but it focuses on criteria which are globally applicable.