And for anyone who has come across this, Please don't re-open it, Instead, if you have a better solution, create a new ticket detailing the pro's and cons of that method.
Required reading priot to that however: The wp-hackers thread that led to this ticket: http://lists.automattic.com/pipermail/wp-hackers/2012-February/042398.html Otto's posts in that thread in particular ( 1 2 and 3) as well as the prior tickets: #11889, #11145, #11990
Auto-drafts were added to solve a real problem and provide the best User-Experience we can possibly do, they serve a real purpose, even if you don't physically see it, they work in the background to make your publishing dream come true. They are automatically Garbage-collected, so you will not have a extreme number in your database forever.