1. Skill-level of the player. If they're good and can bounce back easily enough, I'm destroying that shit. If it's clearly a new player, I'm leaving it. RP be damned, the playercount isn't what it used to be. It's hard to make huge weapons, and destroying even a weapon with a couple souls is pretty depressing for a newer player who clearly tried their best to build it.
2. How strong the cabal they are in is. If you're rolling deep in Empire with a pocket healer, yeah im destroying that. If you're in Entropy I'd give it back because an evil Entropy means every single person in Thera is gunning for you, your cabal powers are useless, and you probably have like one mate to gank with.