Q: I am looking for a way to do X in language Y.
A: You shouldn’t need to do that. What do you really want to do?
Argh. What I really want to do is exactly what I asked. If you don’t know, fine, but don’t try to steer me towards a question you do know the answer to. Just let someone else answer. Not everything is an XY problem[1].
Looking at it from a pedagogical lens, it seems some learners (question askers) will fixate on X and be unreceptive to Y, stemming perhaps from some fundamental differences in conceptual understanding between the asker and the answerer. Trying to answer for Y will confound and frustrate; closing the gaps in understanding (and there may be gaps on both sides) is usually a lot more involved than just shifting the conversation from X to Y.
Pretty close, though.
XY problem is a communication and problem-solving anti-pattern where someone has already decided on an approach and is just asking about implementation details, rather than being open to potentially better solutions that might emerge if they just explained wtf they are trying to do first. Framing it as different abstraction levels obscures this real issue and incorrectly suggests it's just a natural variation in thinking styles rather than a specific mistake in problem-solving approach.
Of course ideally you should be able to ignore that suggestion and force an actual response