As mentioned in another thread on this topic., I have three groups of friends on three different servers. I switch between those servers based on which of the friends are subbed at the moment, and have 10-20 characters on each of those. I am constantly brushing the character cap and am quite hesitant to delete any of them I have left, a seven if I haven’t logged in to some of them in months I can basically guarantee I’m going to be playing them some point in the future.
Just an additional perspective that has nothing to do with name hoarding or collecting.
Mmm money money money. Money! Want more pay more, and not in game gold. They’re merging servers, because population is decreasing. Every account has so much space on their server, you are not paying for 50 toons, you are paying for usage and storage. Don’t want to pay for a second account? Ask Blizz to allow you to buy character slots.
36 spec / 2 spec’s per toon, I want more spec’s per toon and presets on my talent tree so I can switch as needed without figuring it out every time with more choices. Instead we get covenants…
Delete the ones you don’t play. 
If not a straight cap increase, “void storage” for characters would be nice for characters you know you’ll probably never play but don’t want to delete because of the memories/experiences associated with them. Putting a char in void storage could shift most of the data associated with it to low-cost cold storage servers, would take a day or longer to pull out, and would lose exclusivity to its name (if you pull it out and some other char has since taken that name, you’ll be prompted to rename it).
I’d say for those that need it I’m sure they can think and consider an appropriate service.