This seems really bizarre to me. They seem to want people to have the network of connected GH repositories, but this behavior promotes "forking" a project in a way that breaks that network, which is to `git clone` and then create a new repo from that clone.
To put it another way, if the user had "forked" the GH repo onto GitLab, there would be no data loss, but that behavior would promote using GH in a way that breaks the upstream/downstream relationship that you see on GH.
It's even worse that the deleted fork was private. What impact does GH expect deleting the hosted private repository has on folks who really want to keep a private copy of the repo, such as offline or on another git hosting site? I'm really struggling to see any real-world positive sides to this mechanism. Seems like an ineffectual legal or compliance CYA.
To put it another way, if the user had "forked" the GH repo onto GitLab, there would be no data loss, but that behavior would promote using GH in a way that breaks the upstream/downstream relationship that you see on GH.
It's even worse that the deleted fork was private. What impact does GH expect deleting the hosted private repository has on folks who really want to keep a private copy of the repo, such as offline or on another git hosting site? I'm really struggling to see any real-world positive sides to this mechanism. Seems like an ineffectual legal or compliance CYA.