"Why don't/can't you just..."

[HangingOver]

I am prepared to hear that IABU as:

a) I hear this expression all the time and
b) I've never heard of anyone else be irritated by it!

...but, AIBU to find the expression 'Why can't you/we just...' a bit patronising? There's a guy at work that says this ALL this time, often in relation to things he doesn't know much about.

In fact, now I think of it, more often than not, when I hear this expression, the speaker is usually suggesting an overly simple solution to a problem, which I've already thought of and discounted/taken into account.

And even if the person has a point that's not been thought of... I think I usually would say something like, "Ah ok, so the system doesn't allow us to do X. That's a shame".

Or am I just being prickly?

I have worked with IT people like this. You might THINK you just need to know how to renew the licence on some software, a job taking 2 mins, but they'd much prefer you reformat the entire computer, rebuild it from scratch and probably do a french polish on the keyboard too - always something that takes at least 90 minutes. In this case I do feel "but can't we JUST renew the licence for now, technically?" is a valid question.

100% yes though to the "why can't you just"ers who mean "why can't you do this for me so I don't have to". Hate.