This one's on you, not INNO. To prevent accidental deletion of buildings there's a pop-up and, before deleting, a box needs to be checked. For more important buildings, such as GBs, there even a slider that must be manipulated. So, you goofed. Since only one L1 can be earned the only thing that you can do now is to contact Support and ask if they can help you out. It may be a wise idea to be a bit humble when you make the request. Just sayin'
Yes, I admit it was my fault.....but for all the work and time you have to put in to upgrade such a building, there should be another way to get the starter building. They give multiple "Starter buildings" on almost everything else...Why not this?
I'm only guessing but it's probably because they intended for players to only be able have one copy of each Settlement building in their city. I agree that removing an existing Settlement building should reset the ability to get another level 1 but that's not how it works now.
How do you trade buildings with players ?
Lol. No. But contacting support for erroneously sold settlement buildings does work generally. Once at least.
Somehow I think that it won't work this time. Mostly because it's a good bet that it's been a while since the building was deleted.
They don't have to verify the deletion in the case of settlement grand prizes. Since they can instead verify that they have completed the settlement needed, and that they no longer have the item (ergo, it must've been deleted).