Yep! But gene deletions happen in nature all the time, via even single nucleotide mutations that disable an entire gene. Mutations might be more or less likely

Yep! But gene deletions happen in nature all the time, via even single nucleotide mutations that disable an entire gene. Mutations might be more or less likely for various genes, genes might have backup copies elsewhere, and what is even "a gene" can be a bit fuzzy, so it's not a perfect analog of what happens in nature... but the similarity to natural, common processes makes me feel a bit easier about this from a precautionary principle perspective. (Compare, for example, to transgenic GMOs. I suppose a salmon gene being transported to a tomato plant could happen in nature, but it seems extraordinarily unlikely...)