The direct answer to "why is it not a reference" is the same as for why
we have "*this" - these features were added to the language early, long
before we even had references.

C++ has a long history of not removing existing parts of the language,
but instead add new alternatives. This is one of those cases - delete
uses a pointer, because it always has.

But if we change it from a copy to a reference, it won't break anything.

The call sites will be the same, and the function signature is compatible. So?

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