The thread was loved by many users, and got many thousands of views, it's so hard to call garbage. This is more about envy of so sucessful thread.
The number of posts and views does tell one nothing about the quality of the thread. This thread is full of random nonsense, ergo has no value, ergo garbage (definitely not successful).
I'm worried if such removal may lead to ban.
I don't see a specific reason for which this image would be removed from that thread. I also do not think that these is a reason for which this removal could lead to your ban.