Q:

Minimum bar for an answer not to be classified a 'link only answer'

While in the low quality post deleting bad answers just now, I saw this:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/41540205/445131

The answer isn't spam, it answers the question perfectly.   I checked out the link, and I'm thinking "wow", this is the best plugin I've seen for sublime, I tested it, it works.   I edited and upvoted the answer thinking it was good, but then a 140k moderator came around and deleted it. 
Is it deleted because it's a link only answer?   
Is it because sublime isn't open source and free plugins to non free software are considered bad? 
Or could it be muscle memory from a mod deleting link only answers from low rep users without considering the greatness of the content? 
How might I have changed the post so that a 140k rep mod doesn't come around and give it the thumbs-down of smite? 

A:

Is it deleted because it's a link only answer? 

Impossible to know without asking meagar personally, but I'd guess that yes. 

Is it because sublime isn't open source and free plugins to non free
  software are considered bad? 

Moderators don't take topicality into account when choosing whether to delete an answer. ( Other than deleting if it's blatantly not addressing the question at all).  Merely being a link only answer is sufficient for deletion already. 

Or could it be muscle memory from a mod deleting link only answers
  from low rep users without considering the greatness of the content? 

Link only answers always get deleted, regardless of the rep of the user that they come from.  The answer you linked to would probably have been better off as a comment. 

How might I have changed the post so that a 140k rep mod doesn't come
  around and give it the thumbs-down of smite? 

Nothing you can do, it's a link only answer. 
The litmus test for an answer (and whether it is link only) is if you removed the link, it still has to be an answer, which the one you linked to is (in my opinion) not.