Because I fall into the tine demographic of computer nerd and economics nerd.

Bitcoin is the most interesting thing evar.

College kid.  I don't need to pay for power or AC because it is covered in the dorm fees.  Milking it for all it's worth right now.

 

I had the same 'problem'.  Just let the client run for a while.  It took around 14 hours for my transfer to show up.

If you are using debian or Ubuntu (or forks thereof) here is a PPA.

https://launchpad.net/~stretch/+archive/bitcoin

The coins are not destroyed.  They are still associated with the wallet.dat, but because the wallet.dat has been lost, nobody can claim ownership to the bitcoins.

Think of it like losing the key to a safe.  All the money is still in the safe, but because the key has been lost, nobody can use the money inside.

When in doubt. re-install GUI miner.