I don't remember this EVER happening before. It wasn't just the Skyrim base folders either, it was a near clean wipe (example SKSE files were also wiped, only a few files in the data folder are left).

CK wasn't opening so I thought to verify the files. That didn't work so I uninstalled and reinstalled, but found it still not working. Only then did I find out my whole folder was wiped so naturally the CK couldn't find the 'executable'. That wasn't the only thing it couldn't find...

So I have to re-download the whole game, 6 GB, because of this...

Thank gawd that I use Mod Organizer so all my mods are organized OUTSIDE the main folders, otherwise it'll be a much, much bigger inconvenience.

Still, what the heck is up with this? And not even a passing warning?

You may want to post this in the thread over in the CK board. This one is getting a bit more frequent than is comfortable...

Cross-posted to CK forum with a little more elaboration. This is pretty major. Basically the 'uninstall' option on the CK is also uninstalling Skyrim.

Yep, there's been an increasing number of these reports lately so hopefully it gets looked at.