I’m pretty sure editing the email removes the record. In general, editing updates the database with the new value while deleting things marks a record in the database as deleted (e.g. so a mod can un-delete something that was accidentally deleted by a mod). Editing the email adress to remove it should just clear that field in the database. Of course your instance will have backups, but they won’t keep them forever.
I don’t know when I lost my tech savvy, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with things these days.
Things are moving faster and faster these days! I’m not sure that anyone keeps up with everything new.
Speaking of which, does Lemmy remind anyone else of irc? The organized chaos has been giving me deja vu and I think I just realized why…
You’re not the first person to make that connection!