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Review Suggested Edit

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I think the basic question is:
>Would future readers of the question want to see it?
The main way to use a QA site is not to ask or answer questions, but to view existing posts. A post may have 1 person asking, and 5-10 answering, but it could easily have 1000s of people reading it in the years after.
The reading questions after is also one of the main reasons people use QA sites over forums, chats and blogs. StackOverflow became popular, in part, because people were tired of Googling something and finding a Forum thread ending with a pithy "nevermind, figured it out".
So to answer the questions in OP:
~~1. We should only remove fluff iff future readers would not care about it, but leave it in if future readers are unlikely to object to it.~~
2. Jokes may or may not qualify, it depends on the joke. Greetings, thanks and supplications (like please) will almost always something to be removed. These are social ritual between asker and answerer, because some people know the answer but refuse to help unless sufficiently supplicated. Emojis IMO are a special case and should be asked as a separate question.
3. We should remove *all* "bad" fluff, not rewrite it.
~~4. The general rule that fluff is removed iff future readers would not like to see it should apply everywhere. How this is judged may depend on the community.~~
5. When giving feedback, you should always think back to the first time on a QA site that you got yelled at for breaking a minor rule you didn't know about. And give feedback in such a way as you would have liked to receive it then.

I think the basic question is:
>Would future readers of the question want to see it?
The main way to use a Q&A site is not to ask or answer questions, but to view existing posts. A post may have 1 person asking, and 5-10 answering, but it could easily have thousands of people reading it in the years after.
The reading questions after is also one of the main reasons people use QA sites over forums, chats and blogs. Stack Overflow became popular, in part, because people were tired of Googling something and finding a Forum thread ending with a pithy "never mind, I figured it out".
So to answer the questions in OP:
1. We should remove fluff if, and only if, future readers would not care about it; we should leave it in if future readers are unlikely to object to it.
2. Jokes may or may not qualify, depending on the joke. Greetings, thanks and supplications (like please) should almost always be removed. These are social rituals between asker and answerer, because some people know the answer but refuse to help unless sufficiently supplicated. Emojis IMO are a special case and should be asked as a separate question.
3. We should remove *all* "bad" fluff, not rewrite it.
4. The general rule in point 1 should apply everywhere. How this is judged may depend on the community.
5. When giving feedback, you should always think back to the first time on a Q&A site that you got yelled at for breaking a minor rule you didn't know about - then give feedback the way that you would have liked to receive it then.

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Review Suggested Edit