I agree that there will always be exceptions .....
and I applaude your removing the posts under the circumstances you outlined. I still feel for the most part, message deletion is a crutch for those that do not think through their posts. In the past, I have posted things that would have been better left un-said but I took responsibility for them moved on. An old saying, "if you have time to do it over, you have time to do it right in the first place".