Jay, Mike,

though I see your point of view and understand your use cases, there are some additional needs, we have to take into account:

• MS Membership provider had been chosen to provide best interop options with other .Net applications. unfortunately there are some constraints in the original provider interface, limiting extensibility of membership now
• "Authorized" has a different meaning depending on registration mode. When using "verified", it states a valid email address. I agree, it would be preferable to have different flags instead, but atm we have to accept it.
• Soft delete is a new feature, which has room for improvements, as currently logged enhancement requests indicate.I am sure, this will be handled appropriately to available resources and priority.

Seconding Michael, 3rd party modules should NOT rely on core data structure, but on supported API only - though I admit, there is room for improvement in this area - for both, providing appropriate subscribable events as providing in depth documentation. 

PHD,

The code works as shown. 
I put it in a simple module to test.

All accounts are still there. 
The DNN_UserPortals table contains the "IsDeleted" field that is set when you delete a user. 
The DNN_Users table also contains an IsDeleted field but it is not being used.
 

mikez