Issuing silly restraining orders

I wonder whether the family courts ever do anything constructive. While waiting for my case to come up this past week, I had to listen to a couple of other cases with relatively minor disputes. Both had restraining orders, and had to ask the judge about performing necessary communications when the spouses were forbidden to telephone or send email to each other. The judge told them to communicate thru third parties.

I don't see why a judge would ever issue a restraining order to stop telephone calls or email. Millions of people get dozens of spam messages every day, and no court can do anything about it. If you are getting unwanted emails, then just delete them or get a spam blocker. If you are getting unwanted telephone calls, then get Caller ID or an answering machine. The problem is trivial.

So why do judges issue these silly restraining orders? Do they just like imposing orders on people? Are they trying to be punitive? Do they really think that some good comes from the orders? I don't know.