[spideymans]

If I accidentally cut-and-paste from a text document, the absolute worst case scenario is that I lose the contents of the text in that document. It's a bad situation, but the damage is limited and contained.

If I accidentally cut-and-paste a file or directory, the damage could be immense. Years worth of important documents, records, photos, etc... could be gone, because the user's finger slipped and pressed CTRL+X, rather than CTRL+C.

Whether or not the operating system should be protecting users in this manner is fully debatable and a matter of opinion, but Apple's approach here is definitely safer (at the cost of being a bit more annoying)

[chrisseaton]

Doesn't putting it in the Bin until it's pasted fix this?

And you always have undo, just as with text.