I bring as an example this question, that has been closed after ~12 hours: What exactly are electrons if they exist in orbitals without real boundaries?
The OP seems to be someone that does not use PhysicsSE too much, so he/she may be "intimidated" by the closure. Ok, the question was not super clear, but it was edited by a "high-rank" user. After all, "clarity" is somehow subjective. After ~3 hours since the edit (that improved a bit the question), it was closed. So, from the practical point of view, the edit has been nearly useless: probably, only few people saw the edited post.
Now, this website is reached by people from all around the world, living in different time-zones. Moreover, we usually spend ~8 hours to sleep. If the OP posts it in the evening, and then in the morning he/she has to go to school/work, then it is possible that the question will be checked after more than ~12 hours. Someone, living in a different timezone, will not even have the time to see the question (they may comment on it, or even add their interpretation.. this would in any case help the OP, even if the original post is not completely clear).
Would it make sense to have a period of (say) ~24 hours, especially for questions of "new users", in which the question can not be closed? In fact, a "new user" will never be able to re-open it, I suppose (but maybe someone knows some statistics).
PS: maybe the "early closing" may remain as a possibility in the case of homework or for very low-quality (or inappropriate) posts.
PS2: I think everyone should be allowed to vote for closing at any time (see e.g. this on stackoverflow META), the point is when it should be closed (a related PhysicsSE META is this: What guidelines should moderators use to decide when to close questions?).