I agree. I feel like deleting a collection should require at least two requests, one to get a deletion authorization token, and another to perform the deletion

I agree. I feel like deleting a collection should require at least two requests, one to get a deletion authorization token, and another to perform the deletion with the token. The RESTful equivalent of "are you sure?". It's terrifying to think millions of records are just one DELETE request away from oblivion.