Not true. Depreciation is a cost RECOVERY mechnism . it is not

just tax defer,

it is cost recovery through useful years. Those assets are capital assets, those are tools that generate income for investor. Income tax is based on NETincome, which means what you invested should be removed from consideration when they taxed. 

That is why in the upper post the recapture calculation doesn't make any sense,

The intention of recapture is to target those ACCELERATED part of depreciation.    Those excessive depreciation they ever used to offset ordinary income (which maybe in high marginal tax bracket )