Storage is cheap.... Why remove intermediate files at all? If you don't want to permanently remove files, then why use rm? Just create a "del" command that moves deleted files to a trash folder. You can then make part of your backup routine be to empty the trash after performing the backup (since that file would now be available in the backups).
You're right—it's more of a "these files are in the way, and I'm sure I'm done with them... so it shouldn't hurt to just type those two little letters and reclaim the storage..."
Actually, that sounds like exactly the cognitive dissonance people had when they first started using Gmail. Perhaps filesystems need an "Archive" folder as well? Not even a Trash folder—because people want to empty a Trash folder—but rather just an enforced (and shell-supported) directory where things go when you don't have any reason to keep them, and therefore have no place to put them?
