Do you mean the Editor UI?
Other Nodes are generally the accepted way of finding more. I certainly have a notebook of API calls that I occasionally add to when I find something. API documentation is gradually filling out but then so is the API 
Most Nodes are so simple that they don't really need a complex structure.
I've tried to embody some simple standards and you will find them in my jktest node and uibuilder.
Especially the next release of uibuilder where I'm tidying up the folder structure so that the nodes folder contains all of the node code (js and html), front-end code other than the main html file is elsewhere such as the templates folder and front-end for the front-end library code, documentation in the docs folder. Then there are the examples, bin and tests folders. uibuilder is certainly now a fairly complex node.
Most structure though could be taken from any good Node.js module.
Yes, that's what I mean.
That may be the way it is (and is the way a lot of software gets written) but it's not a good way to welcome new developers to a platform. How am I supposed to know that the random node code I'm looking at is doing something in an accepted best practice way? How am I even supposed to know what I'm looking for if I don't know something is possible in the first place (e.g. registering new routes on the internal Express server).
Well-written, complete, documentation with official examples that cover common scenarios help new developers get past the initial hurdles and focus their efforts on accomplishing their task.
With a project like NodeRed I expect most developers who write their first node are like me: they wanted to do something with NodeRed that wasn't supported by existing nodes. Their goal is to get their node done to accomplish their task. Documentation that doesn't provide complete API information, showcase best practices, etc. makes it that much harder for people to want to participate in this ecosystem.
I'm certainly not disagreeing. I think we all agree that there are places where the documentation needs improving. It needs more contributors. Particularly newcomers with fresh eyes. There is a #docs channel over on Slack where such things are discussed.
Having acknowledged that some docs could be improved, I'd also add that for most people, they get used to Node-RED first and so are probably already familiar with which nodes are commonly used and are familiar with some of the chatter in the forum. So it is likely that most would have a reasonable guess as to what nodes might be worth looking at. Starting with core nodes of course. The serial nodes for example are often listed in the forum as a place to start looking at API's in the node that deliver information to the Editor (looking up available serial ports in this case).
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