I played Warcraft for 5 years and was never denied a lost item if there was an issue. Then again, you got a reply from Blizzard, unlike Bungie, it would appear. However, I'm sure you've noticed that you aren't selling to shops or vendors in Destiny. So it's not a major stretch to list recently dismantled/deleted items and allow you to get them back by forfeiting what you got from them. You could even narrow it down to just deleted engrams to be fair. Why is there even a delete function for them? You get rep and mats from the gear (which is what I wanted in my reptilian haste), so who would knowingly delete one? Hands up if you have!? Also, you use the same function to delete an engram as you do to dismantle gear. There are more buttons on the controllers.

Because Blizzard is Blizzard and Bungie is Bungie. Bungie, as others here also stated, has made it known that if a piece is dismantled, it's gone. You are an adult and should be aware of what you are doing. If you make a mistake, you should learn from it and move on. Using the same function to delete gear is smart..why would I want to have 2+ ways to remove gear from my inventory?

Because one is to dismantle, the other is to delete. You can't dismantle an engram, and you can't delete an item. If you are going to use the same button to do it, you should at least get the mats from the engram. You can sit here arguing with me over my absent mind all day if you want. I'm game for it. The fact of it is, I'm not the only one. And I won't be the last. Google the issue and you'll see a lot of people have done it. You can sit on your Ivory throne looking down on us peasants who have accidentally deleted something (OMG - how does he get dressed in the morning), or you can acknowledge that mistakes happen and it would be nice to have that feature incase you ever need to use it.

Mistakes do happen - sure. But just because you made a mistake does not mean a new system needs to be put in place to protect you from yourself.

Why not? Who does it hurt? Why is this such a sticking point?

Why not? Because it's not needed. It's bloat that will serve no purpose. If people don't pay attention, no amount of checks/confirmations added will prevent people from dismantling/deleting items that they didn't mean to. The easiest and quickest 'fix' for this issue is for people to pay attention to what they are doing. I would rather the devs spend more time addressing imbalances, glitches, bugs, tuning, etc.. than focusing on a feature that will ultimately become a hindrance and usleess - because people that don't pay attention now will not pay attention later. A video game does not need to become some clone of Windows Vista - prompting you for damn near any/every action you are taking. I'm an adult, not a child. Anyone that has the aptitude to play this game has more than enough intelligence to be cognizant of their actions and know better than to delete items without a second thought. If it happens, it happens. I'm sure it sucks, but I learned my lesson playing WoW for many years as well. Deleting fresh raid gear from a boss fight I had been wanting on/farming for months. Never did it again.

If you don't delete your engrams, it won't be a hindrance to you. If you do, be it through eagerness, absent mindedness or some other reason, then it would be a boon!

All justification as a reason to delete an engram stem from not paying attention. Simple fix: pay attention. Problem solved.

Not for me, or the others who have done the same thing.

So you want your hand held? Perhaps games of this nature/genre are not for you..