The person who speaks up respectfully may be protecting someone who cannot risk the same question.

Not everyone in a room carries the same cost for asking. A junior colleague, someone on a visa, a patient who fears being labeled difficult, may need the question asked and be unable to ask it themselves without consequences. When someone with more standing raises it calmly, they are spending safety they happen to have; that is often why the question sounds mild and matters a great deal.

Notice who in the room can afford to speak and whether it is you. If it is, ask the awkward question plainly, and do it without making a performance of it.