Since we are all repeating what always is said in these threads, I'll add my 2 cents.

We have no promise that each possible outputs of our hashing algorithms are reachable by some valid input.  So, addresses where the private key has been lost are fundamentally different from addresses that never had a private key to begin with.  Thus, coins sent to the bitcoin eater are "more lost" than coins sent to bitomat depost addresses.

Physics won't let us iterate all possible private keys, but if we could, we are sure to find the bitomat coins.  We aren't sure at all that we'll find the bitcoin eater coins.