Shipping records deleted during uninstall or reinstall-Manual Fixed or by weight and total plugin

Version 4.1 and 4.3
Expected behavior: do not delete existing shipping records on uninstall or reinstall
Reproduce: (must have saved shipping records in plugin configuration)
1. uninstall/install or reinstall Manual Fixed or by weight and total plugin
2.  Go to Admin>Configuration>Shipping>Shipping Providers - Manual (Fixed or By Weight and By Total) and click 'Configure'
3. All records added to calculate shipping are gone.

Why did you need to uninstall ?
Did you backup your database before making changes to the system ?

It's not a bug; it's by design.  Many plugins work the same way.  Uninstall will remove settings and their domain/DB records.

We had to reinstall because string resources we not displaying correctly. (common problem among plugins which a reinstall seems to fix).

Ok - yes I suppose sometimes you need to do it
Alternatively just fix the string resource
My plugins have a "Delete Tables on Uninstall" checkbox for this situation.
The plugin only deletes the tables if checkbox  is ticked.