True, but it beats the alternative where CloudFormation deletes objects that you didn't want deleted. The underlying issue is that the S3 objects are outside of

True, but it beats the alternative where CloudFormation deletes objects that you didn't want deleted. The underlying issue is that the S3 objects are outside of the CloudFormation scope, thus it takes no risk and doesn't delete your objects. A nice feature would be a "ForceDelete" deletionpolicy where it would delete the objects. You can even set this initially when creating a stack, and change it to "Retain" later when the stack is stable. Totally agree btw that it's a huge pain initially, though once you know it it's also not that hard to work around.