Ya but it's unusual to be doing that.

In tests I was able to retrieve the text of comments deleted a year ago, when I had never even participated in lemmy. Certainly I have no archive of anything and if I did it wouldn't extend so far back.

I think it's fair to allow people to get rid of the low-hanging fruit if they want. Even though the internet is forever. Depending on the threat model, it might be good enough.