To me deboxing a G3 is different from removing a G1 from its packaging because the G3 packaging means you can put them back in and they look about the same (aside from the plastic strip in their hair being gone). Whereas removing a pony from a bubble on card is more permanent.
I will say that a lot of people think they will have their beloved MLP collection forever, and usually this isn't the case. I started collecting in the late 90s and now a tiny handful of pony collectors from that era are still around. The people who were actively collecting in 2003, 2010 . . . almost all gone. I mean, they're not dead or anything.
(AFAIK.) But they dropped out of collecting. It's natural for your interests to change over time.
Most ponies get recirculated as people sell their collections / get into pony collecting. I understand the individualist perspective that "it's my toy and I'll do what I want" but on the other hand . . . this is also a community and it sucks when something rare and special is removed. Like if a rare MLP prototype was accidentally thrown away I don't think most collectors would be like "Well,
I would never have been able to put it on
my shelf, so it doesn't matter that it's gone forever.
" I think everyone would be pretty sad about such a loss.
There are plenty of mint, loose ponies but few MOCs. (Especially with G1s because those were mostly kept MOC "by mistake", like parents buying an intended birthday gift in the 80s and forgetting it in a closet for 20 years, lol.) That said, with G3s, like I said before, I feel like it's much lower stakes because the boxes are so reusable. And also there were pretty many people collecting G3s mint in box so there should be relatively more of them. Rarity is definitely a factor, not just age.