The goal of the better suggestions isn't to avoid confrontation, but to remind that there are ways to make requests that are more and less likely to get you what you want. Accusatory, sarcastic, and snide tones are well into the "less likely to get you what want", zone; making yourself out to be the one with the problem, and framing the request as asking a co-worker to do you a small favor is much more likely to have a positive result.