Yes that is correct. In times with almost no garbage collection changes the risk for bugs is low and a storage node could wipe the trash folder with no penalty. Don’t get me wrong. Even in these times there is a risk. For example a satellite could burn down and we are forced to restore the satellite from backup. Part of that procedure is also to restore all data from the trash folder on the storage node side. Nodes that don’t keep the files in the trash folder could get disqualified basically in any situation that requires us to restore the trash folder.
Now in addition to that risk we are currently also changing a lot around garbage collection. So that increases the risk of a bug and us having to call restore from trash. I have deleted the trash folder on my own storage nodes in the past but right now I don’t risk it. I don’t want to get disqualified for a simple bug. I don’t want to get disqualified for ignoring the fallback option that was implemented for this exact reason. At least not for the next few months. I might wipe my trash folder in a few month when all the garbage collection changes are stable enough to risk it again.