I can't help but feel curious about the "shit" that was deleted.

It's not cool to just have a [dead] remark; could there be a better solution to remove the noise, yet allow curious people to find out what are the replies referring to?

Go to your profile and turn on "Show Dead". I used to leave it on because, like you, I was curious. But over time I've come to trust the deletions, and now believe that, on the whole, the deleted material simply wastes my time.