I’d argue that it does “exist” on that server but in an inactive state. When recovered it still has all the items, gear, gold and xp that was gained on it while active on the server. The distinction that it’s a new character being created makes no sense if it gathered any of those resources.
As long as the character wasn’t purged and is available to be recovered it still “exists” on the server, it’s just inactive, in my opinion at least.
This was the argument that was made and it was proven to be the correct one as you can see at the bottom of the thread. I interpret this argument as recovering a character is not creating a new one so it should be allowed even without an existing character on the server.
Any reply other than Kalviery’s in that thread lacks any substance considering they are not Blizzard employees.
Also, many, many threads have been made on this topic and if I have to, I will make a post on the general discussion forums but as you can see from that thread 2 years ago, this issue was brought up HERE on the customer support forum and was solved HERE on the customer support forum.
If I turn out to be wrong, then so be it. But everyone replying to this issue stating that you shouldn’t be able to recover characters on locked servers without a pre-existing character is echoing the sentiment of that thread from 2 years ago, which turned out to be incorrect.
Vrakthris said they’d look into it and until we hear back, I’ll continue to push for recovering characters.