Presumably privacy and security related. IMAP keeps a copy of the email on the server, while POP deletes it

Pop can be configured either way, but what I wonder: doesn't this presume you only ever use one client? For me that would not work at all. Unless you sync mail between your clients another way, then I am all ears.

No, because you can keep the mail on the server. But you said that yourself.

I am pretty sure IMAP can be configured to delete mail from server after sync, and anyway Google has all the time in the world to scan your emails before you delete them.

I learnt this the hard way in the early days of interneting. Lost all my emails after an IBM hard drive died on me and my email client was using POP to retrieve mail.

DeskStar? I also lost everything to one of those drives.

Fortunately I had (some) backups

It sure was!

I remember them being nicknamed DeathStars.