[Penguin]

First of all, people have been known to come back after years of absence. Coming back to find that everything you'd built has been removed to make way for a newer player to build when they could have easily just... built somwhere else... is enough to put most people off from returning in the first place.

Also consider that taking these valuable blocks from an inactive player is literally theft.

Players sometimes leave the server and upon doing so, will give ownership of their builds and belongings to other active players. For those players who go on hiatus, or who are unable to play for a length of time, it is unfair to simply leave their stuff up for grabs for other players.

"Why shouldn't someone else benefit from finding some nice stuff"? because that player worked hard to obtain those items. A random player who comes across their build and takes them did not. They don't have any claim to other peoples items just because the player is "inactive"