> How do you ensure people don't think you're not good at your job

Great point. In the beginning, it was fine because I was new and didn't have domain knowledge. As time went by, I had decided I hate the team/job and I need to find a new job anyway.

> Also, what's the point of Y being a poor solution?

In this scenario, I was never in a point of knowing if my good solution was good enough. My best attempt may be something that would get me 80-90% of the way but needed small modifications.

People speed reading my email might not see the nuance and think I already had the correct approach, and wouldn't respond. That risks going forth with a problematic solution. If, however, you say something that is clearly wrong, people are quick to respond.

More concisely, if I go with my best approach, and no one responds, I still don't know if my approach is correct or not. The point of the email is I need their feedback. So I have to set up the situation to virtually guarantee I get their feedback.

(Another approach I would do is list 3 options I was thinking of, and make the default one a poor one - at least this way they know I'm capable of thinking up good solutions but haven't developed judgement yet).

> such that even if they don't respond, you can implement a decent solution?

The goal is to elicit a response. If I say clearly "I need a response", then I'm not going to get it.

Again, do this only with problematic teams. This isn't a guide for normal work. For normally functioning teams, I would recommend going with the best approach and making that the clear default.