I could care less about post counts - I stopped caring about post counts when MC switched from vBulletin to XenForo, and our post counts were no longer displayed prominently in our posts along our avatars and usernames . . . I don't even know what my post count is unless I go to my actual profile.
But still, a lot of these threads are part of the history of what made MC, well, MC . . . as I recall, the smile thread dates back to a time where a majority of MCers were feeling comfortable enough to come out of their shells and actually connect and bond with other members - prior to that, MC was a little more than just a forum for Muppet fans, there really was no sense of community. Over the course of 2005, more and more of us ventured out beyond just discussing Muppet productions, and we began getting involved in each other's lives and establishing the community that made MC such a special place back in the day. In a sense, our own history is being erased. Even if this is still a case of some random member wanting his/her posts deleted for whatever reason, while I can understand that yes, arguably, deleting the entire thread (particular one hundreds of pages long) is a lot easier and less of a hassle than combing through those hundreds of pages to delete the member's specific posts, this still isn't fair to the rest of us who invested time in those threads communicating with other members of our MC family. A lot of these threads have brought the community together (yes, even the Trump thread, when we learned to agree to disagree) - if someone no longer wants to be part of that, that's their own problem, it shouldn't have to be a disruption for the rest of us . . . it's not like when someone decides to move out of their parents or whoever's house and then it suddenly turns that entire family upside down.