the wallet.dat file that has the address i sent the btc to, is gone.
...
of course, the file from whence the btc were sent is still very much here on my box right now. But the bitcoin gui is showing an ominous unconfirmed debit.
So, what you basically did is this:
You have Wallet A and Wallet B (think of physical wallets). Wallet B is a new wallet you just bought. It's empty. Then you take some dollar notes from Wallet A (which is full of dollar notes) and put it to Wallet B ("the address I sent the BTC to" = "Wallet B"). So the dollar notes were in Wallet B. Then you took Wallet B and burnt it to ashes.
If you had a backup of Wallet B (done magically with some molecule duplication technology), you'd have Wallet B1 and B2, both providing access to the Bitcoins you sent to Wallet B. Then when you burn B1, it's not a big deal - you still got B2.
In any case: Since you took the Bitcoins / dollar notes out of Wallet A, they're no longer there. So, if you completely emptied Wallet A, you could safely delete / burn Wallet A (however, if anyone ever sends you BTC to an address from Wallet A, those will be lost forever because no one can send them anywhere anymore).