I also deleted my Facebook account many years ago. Maybe 2012 or 2013. But that reminds me of a joke: how do you know someone isn't on Facebook -- don't worry, they'll tell you! When I closed mine, I actually went through their download content process, then removed each post and photo and such. I know that this doesn't mean actual deletion. For a while I left the account active only so I could be notified if someone tagged me in a photo (so I could untag it), but eventually just shut it all down.

Fast forward 7+ years...

I started a small business a few years ago. I tried to do account recovery on my previous Facebook account in order to set up the business page. Just wanted to reserve the name and link directly to our real website, to prevent bad actors from impersonating the business. Managed to recover my account, proving that it was never really deleted even 7+ years later (surprise surprise). Got the business page set up, and then several hours later got locked out, with Facebook demanding I send copies of my real government issued id. WTF. Well, task was complete, so fuck em.