I just went through all the versions.
It appears the notation about don't delete was omitted after version 7.3.1 going forward..
Starting with version 7.4 October 16, 2008
In fact version 7.3.1 only has the notation in portal box 1.php.
I only looked in the default 10 portal box files so I assume that is when this started.
Last edited by Ruben; 02/19/2019 2:36 PM. Reason: Added comment