Besides, even if that were wise, the last two episodes had way too many Deus Ex Machinas to be decent. The two crazy artifacts, Willow's sudden realization that she could cast a spell to create dozens of superheroes from scratch, and the utter rediculous of Buffy's plan come together to make one cruddy ending.
No kidding. That's one of the things that gets my goat about it. How many Deus Ex Machina's could they cram into a series finale? It seemed like they were intent on finding out. With the scythe, the amulet, Willow's sudden ability to create Slayers, it was a bit much. Then again, both seasons 6 and 7 were incredibly weak. Far as I'm concerned, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was only 5 seasons long, with a couple stand-alone episodes made afterwards. That was it.
As for Babylon 5...
One of these things is not like the others.... maybe it was obsolete as well as old, but log cabins with woodstoves and non-flush toilets are pretty obsolete and yet people buy them all the time.
And how many of them are packed to the brim with artillery, missile batteries, and all kinds of other weapons, and parked right alongside the interstate highway, in a prime position where they can shoot the hell out of any motorists driving by?
It was a navigational hazard not just because it was parked right between the jump gate and the planet it was in orbit of, but because of the possibility of some rogue group, like pirates, taking over the place and using it as a base of operations. And considering how tough it proved in the past, it'd cost an enormous amount of lives to eliminate any pirates or anyone else who takes up residence on Babylon 5. THAT'S why it had to be blown up. It was to expensive to maintain (Especially since pretty much everyone had anti-grav tech at that point. A similar sized base with Minbari anti-grav tech would likely be MUCH cheaper to maintain then B5), it wasn't worthwhile to defend, but they just couldn't leave it out there and allow any schmuck to come along and take possession of it.
So wouldn't you say that having a manned and armed space station right at the entrance of a jump gate would be hazardous to space travel in that solar system? Especially if you're trying to get down to the planet below? It wouldn't be hazardous to have pirates going through that same jump gate and attacking ships in other systems, and being able to return to B5 to resupply?
As for the question of scrap, a lot easier to collect scrap when it's a bunch of little pieces, rather then one big piece. Blowing it apart was likely the quickest way to get that scrap. Taking it apart rivet by rivet would've more then likely taken a LOT longer and more effort for no real gain, since the whole point of scrap is that you smelt it down and reforge it. Doesn't really matter if it's charred at the edges or not.
