Friends rarely arrive holding the answer, and the answer is rarely the first thing needed anyway. What they change immediately is the size of the thing.
A friend who came round and did the washing-up without being asked hasn't fixed anything. But the kitchen was clear afterwards, and the evening turned out to be survivable in a way it would not otherwise have been.
That's most of what help is: not answers, but weight taken off in small unglamorous units. Which means asking doesn't require a well-defined request. "Can you come over" is a complete sentence.