I noticed in the bulk actions menu (visible on the search page, using bulk select for 1 or more posts).
There are two delete options:
Delete Topic(s)
Delete Post(s)
The confirmation for Delete Posts seems clear, but the confirmation for Delete Topics is confusing imo.
Permanently delete the selected topics. This action cannot be undone.
from: js.topic_bulk_actions.delete_topics.description
If I confirm to delete the selected topic(s), they are deleted normally (soft) and can be restored.
This is with site setting can_permanently_delete as false (default).
Also, there doesn’t seem to be a visual distinction between search results that are a topic or a post/reply, besides hovering over them and looking at the end of the url. Which makes using these two bulk delete options a bit unintuitive for moderators imo.