My incorrect misuse of "delete" was not intended to suggest that posts which are in flagrant violation of the guidelines be expunged from the site. Not only would marking them dead be preferable in the spirit of transparency and trust - it would also demonstrate examples of inappropriate topics.
I intended [3] to be an example of a submission related to this same topic which was not in such obvious violation of any guidelines. Consequently it did not become a flame war. Perhaps also consequently it did not garner as much attention.
For posts like these, there is a clear tension between what people want to discuss and what conforms to the guidelines. There are countless admonitions here about this place not becoming reddit. For these topics, you seem to be over-weighting participant preference in the direction of becoming more like the bad parts of reddit.
It's fine to think that, and I hope you can trust that what we care most about is the trust and health of the overall community, and it's an ongoing challenge to find the right balance. We won't get it right every day or month but we hope we can over the long term. It's still important for all users to make an effort to observe the guidelines do their own bit to contribute constructively to HN.