Prevent cascade deletes of unlinked variations

The scenario is that I have two different product sets: two variation masters with their own child products which I want to combine. I need to remove the children from one set, and then add them to another. Clicking Unlink on each of the child products makes them disappear from the screen, however they aren't saved at that point. Clicking Delete Product on the variation master still causes a cascade delete of all the child products which should have been unlinked. I realise I should have hit save, however the intuitive activity here of housekeeping with the intention of deleting a product doesn't lend itself to think of saving something just before you hit delete on it.