Now, you can't have it both ways. If the holodeck characters are not self aware, then they are not like The Doctor, and it is OK to delete them. On the other hand, if they are self aware, then deleting them is murder. Given how much of Voyager takes place on the holodeck, this is something the story editors need to decide, and soon, or the show is apt to go the way of Harsh Realm . It may seem like a minor matter, but it is actually the whole ball game.
People enjoy fiction because they react emotionally to the characters.
No emotion, no enjoyment. If a person feels he has been gulled into responding emotionally to a cardboard cutout, the off button is just a fingertip away. But it was made clear that Minuet was an exception, and that most holo-characters were just light and air, no feelings, no moral dilemma about turning them off. In some of the Dixon Hill episodes that and other holodeck rules were broken, but we must just put this down to an error, or nothing in the other episodes makes sense. Here it was clear that, unlike other holodeck characters, Moriarty had a right to life.