I totally agree with your main point and SO is kind of the perfect example. At the same time it is kind of the worst example because for one, to the best of my knowledge, their architecture is pretty much an outlier, and for another it is what it is for non-technical historical reasons.
As far as I remember they started that way because they were on a Microsoft stack and Microsofts licensing policies were (are?) pretty much prohibitive for scaling out. It is an interesting question if they would design their system the same way if they'd the opportunity to start from scratch.
As far as I remember they started that way because they were on a Microsoft stack and Microsofts licensing policies were (are?) pretty much prohibitive for scaling out. It is an interesting question if they would design their system the same way if they'd the opportunity to start from scratch.