Hell, maybe someone just got fucking tired of looking at all the random dead garbage threads or those that consistently draw report after report after report for any various list of reasons. Most of what was nuked as far as I can tell was totally useless shit in most senses of the word.
What happened here, to my thinking, doesn't rise to even close to the BF version because the intent doesn't appear to be the same. Which we can all agree would be some mod with a fucking ax to grind or a sore ass personally. And, when those happened, fuck you, ask some questions and see how fast YOU get smoked too.
That hasn't been the case that I know of here, and some threads have been restored, and I sure haven't seen anyone in here who was asking legit questions about it get smoked for simply asking. I personally don't see any real loss here in any meaningful way, other than in that whole Hoarder way of looking at things like, well, it wasn't hurting anything, keep it forever, or it was possibly useful in the future so I should hold on to it until I die.
Whether it was planned or not seems irrelevant in the big picture.