2:18 PM
of course, the corner-case allows for some dust along the baseboards :)
I suppose some of it's a translation issue. One person writes a question, someone (or ones) answers it; then the OP clicks a checkmark next to one of the answers. Now and for the rest of time, hundreds -- thousands -- of people come along and vote on the various answers. Millions of people browse the site and mistake (mis-take) the accepted answer as being on a pedestal of some sort.
I know when I'm browsing SO/SE for information, I scan the accepted answer and its comments AND the other answers and attempt to suss out the information that's useful to me. Maybe I'm the exception.
(I have inside knowledge the the checkmark is not terribly special)