Really I'm thinking over the guys who choose a good char name, played 4-5 years ago for like 3 months and quit for good. But again is making me to put a time-limit without any research whatsoever on the DB info. But pretty sure I'm not exaggerating that they are plenty of those cases.
Because is not a matter of making a new char with a new name, is to be able to get names that are lost forever in a deactivated account that is, probably, never going to be activated again.
Point is really.
* If it does exist and is on an active account = you're screwed and you must rename/make a new char and as you kindly stated, we deal with it.
* If it does exist on a long ago deactivated account = sorry, but that name should be available again.
Oh I can't be more agree with you on that, but honestly this service implementation shouldn't be an excuse/reason for SE to be as lazy/slow with the in-game stuff that is necessary. Even they can/are pipe-lining a lot of stuff so should't be a problem at all. ^_^
