I certainly tend towards the lazy side but I do find I my thinking differs between using Linux and Windows and I suppose at times may be a little hard on Windows but this is how it goes.

Q: Have I already got a little utility that will do this job?

Linux: I'll bet I have.
Windows: Probably not.

As for DELTREE (which is not on Win2K either), I've never used the command but I'm not sure I would agree with it just vanishing. Would it have been possible for MS to have kept everyone happy by providing DELTREE as a simple batch file that ran RMDIR/S or perhaps just pointed them in the right direction, eg. "DELTREE is obsolete, use RMDIR/S instead".