> I didn't think it was that much of a problem to replace slashes with hyphens
That forces change, the user may have existing /s, so now what do they do that you have replaced it with -s? Edit their whole existing files? Be forced a change? DO NOT ENFORCE WHAT YOU PREFER OVER OTHERS CHOICE. You do not know what others have used, maybe they parse syntax by code, or whatever, do not remove it.
As for `mm/dd/yyyy` vs `dd/mm/yyyy` there is a significant issue, they are both valid/invalid and used in many different places so there is no sensible answer. If one of the templates exist then again it should continue to exist[^1], and if someone can make a PR to add the other for lots of users (indeed based on your excellent study and what is used here).
The only point to also make from the study is that one of the only two mm/dd/yyyy is a biiiig country in software so there is likely to get you much negativism if they lose it :-)
> I did this not out of rudeness or disregard with other cultures or parts of the world,
Rudeness wasn't the right terminology, but I couldn't think of an alternative expression at the time, sorry.
The point that was being made is that none of us know what is used by who, in which parts of the world, so removing existing templates is seen as removing something somebody elsewhere in the world has been using and now they lose their templates. So they then have to consider changing a date in existing files and contents, meaning its no longer what they have been doing, it clashes, and if the date is parsed somewhere its possibly also no longer compatible with the parser. So yeah users are likely to be cranky and suggesting [deleted] descriptions of those who removed their previous template.
Really just add things you personally want and don't remove existing things, if someone else wants their preference they can be added too, so long as the menu doesn't get far too big who cares. But trying to make a universal solution is just too hard, too many formats and countries and separator characters (don't format spaces too).
[^1]: my personal view is that since its impossible to know what a date `1/2/2024` is, `mm/dd/yyyy` or `dd/mm/yyyy` and neither should be accepted no matter what the separator, all date/times should be ISO only and others removed, but too late now.