I’ll tell you exactly why this is for me, at least. When you’re exploring a New Romantic option and that person isn’t totally sure if they are into you or not, you can say one wrong stupid thing and ruin your chances of getting with that person. Also with a crush, who usually you don’t know super well, you don’t know what things might be the wrong things to say to that person.
This is why the “don’t talk ask questions” strategy works so well for flirting. It makes you seem interested in them (and you should be) and also prevents you from fucking the whole thing up with your big stupid mouth that meant to tell a funny joke but it accidentally came out racist or some shit.