I want the delete button to archive messages instead of deleting them because it's the desired effect I use the most often and it's much easier than ^ + ⌘ + A. I feel like I've been able to set it up this way before but I don't remember how.
From Mail's Help file:
Note: To archive a message from a Mail notification or from the message list with a swipe, the “Move discarded messages” option in Viewing preferencesin Mail must be set to Archive; otherwise, the message is deleted.
I have that set, but when pressing the delete key in mail still sends the message to trash instead 😥
I want to Archive messages when hitting the delete button
