The thread was removed because 'Interest Checks' is not an appropriate subforum for something that can be ordered right now, even if it's through a raffle.
But why delete it then instead of just moving it to the appropriate subforum (in this case groupbuys and preorders)?
This was done with other threads before. Deleting seems kinda harsh to me since all the information that was in the thread is now permanently lost.
The thread was not moved to GB because the user posting the thread did not meet requirements to create a thread in GB, and we don't want to encourage breaking one site rule in order to circumvent another site rule.
I believe the thread was 'unapproved' rather than deleted -- like what happens in the Classifieds when a thread breaks the rules. This means that the thread starter can still view the thread, so they will still have access to feedback from the community made before the thread was removed.