Total speculation. But I think some of these clients "stage" the data for faster UX.

On the backend, on their ends, ping the relays for updates, mirror the data on their server so it's readily available to user upon request. Rather than having to ping each relay in real time. It seems Primal does this. Maybe on multi-minute interval, or "on_event" logger. But it doesn't seem live.

Also storing settings, preferences, client-side muted words, etc. Just my hunch.

I’ve wondered this too. Maybe it’s just a wipe from their relay (and if you uploaded media to their servers) and a block from using their front end?

Good question, I'd avoid pressing that button because I imagine it will send out a deletion request for your profile and posts.

If that's the case and you don't run your own nostr relay or if your relay might delete your posts if it gets that request, then you might lose your profile and posts.

It's because of Apple bullshit. We on Primal had to do the same thing to appease Tim Apple.

There's a requirement to give users an option to delete their accounts if you're working on a social network app.

It adds a simple "deleted: true" prop to your Metadata Nostr object and it's being checked on login.

Of course nothing stops you to just remove that prop and publish new Metadata Nostr object to your select relays. 🤷‍♂️