On the other hand, perhaps it's good to allow data to be lost occasionally... I've lost old emails, source code, and other documents that I thought were really important (to me at least). Turns out I was wrong, I don't miss any of it. It's a shame when people lose stuff for reasons other than neglect, but it happens. Start over or work on something new (and treat it like an opportunity, not a chore).
1) That doesn't mean that you're better off losing all the data you've lost.
2) You may not even be better-off on average considering the data lost.
3) Not your call: some folks turn disaster into opportunity, but a disaster is still disastrous.