How does Apple Support Communities work, exactly?

The ASC is generally manned by other users like yourself. There are some Apple employees that "host" the forum, but they just ensure that threads are in the correct location and meet the terms of service. They can also receive reports from higher level users that can report violations of the TOS. If a question is not generally responded to within 24-48 hours, an Apple Community Specialist can respond, but will provide a link to an Apple Support Document. Posts marked Recommended are marked this way by Apple Community Specialists, based on the question and the content of the particular response.

It's mostly just other user volunteers. Many of us don't like the fact that the responses written by Apple staffers are treated as if the original poster confirmed them as being correct.

Most of the people who answer questions here are regular community members. Apple employees monitor this board, but rarely officially reply; any of them which do will be listed as community specialists or hosts.

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In some cases I think you'll find that the 'Recommended by Apple' posts are ones that contain useful information, tips, techniques or valuable support advice, even if it doesn't directly address the original poster's question - it still contains something that someone might find useful.

As for why your questions might not get answered, there are many possible reasons. Often it's not clear to other people exactly what it is you're asking, maybe because the original post doesn't include sufficient data - it's common, for example, for people to omit 'obvious' (to them) data in the original post, which just leads to 'I already tried that (obviously)' answers. Sometimes the original problem isn't common, so there isn't a common/easy/known answer, so people try to help by making suggestions, many of which go nowhere, sometimes adding to the frustration.

Ultimately, though, this is a user-to-user support forum, not an official Apple support channel, and we're all here doing our best. 🙂