just to be clear, you're actually talking about data in a table in a database, the form builder doesn't build new databases or tables for each form you make, it just camps the data in a huge table.

That being the case, we didn't really see a compelling reason /to/ delete the data. How easy would it be for a client to accidentally delete the last copy of the form, only to go "oh, wait - i /need/ the 100,000 emails we gathered... wooops!".. What's the downside to leaving the data there on the backend?

You'll see we make decisions like this fairly frequently through concrete5. You can't delete users, you can only lock them out.. etc.. We do this because in general, deleting data causes unpredictable problems and hiding data is safer..

i could certainly see a "hide" type button on the dashboard for forms tho in the big picture, because I totally recognize that can get messy