FURIOUS!! - Automatic iPad Sync Deleted All Apps Without Warning

Question

My iPad, 3rd Generation (6.0), is set to wirelessly sync with iTunes (10.7) in Mountain Lion (10.8.2). Today I opened iTunes and was greeted with the a message advising me that the iPad had new apps that were not yet synced back to iTunes. I was in a rush so I declined to sync the new apps. But as soon as I pressed the button, iTunes proceeded to delete all of my apps from the iPad, including all the data associated with those apps (including PDF files with annotations). I attempted to restore from an iTunes backup, but I got nothing back.
My objections:
(1) This is seriously unpredictable and harmful behavior in iTunes.
(2) My iTunes backup utterly failed or was overwritten after I declined to transfer the apps
(3) This is not a new problem: See http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=889859
My feelings:
Now I have to spend hours recreating what I had on the iPad. I'm a patient man, and very computer savvy. But this has me wanting to throw my iPad through the window.

Answer 1

To JimHdk:
Will do. I checked my support options before posting, but they are fairly limited after 90 days. What I really wanted -- which is apparently too much to expect -- is for someone from Apple to engage me on this without my having to pay for additional support. My product is less than 6 months old, but Apple offers  support only out to 90 days. The support tree ends in two places: (1) with my paying for  telephone support or (2) submit my question to the community. That seems like pretty sparse support for a premium product.
Apologies for winding up here, but this is where I was directed by Apple. My hope was that there would be Apple reps trolling these forums with their ear to the ground. But maybe that's too much to hope for.
To Julian:
Sorry for shouting. Apple gave me no other place to go with my frustration.
What do I want fellow apple users to do? Be warned, I guess.
I now see the fine print under the notice which states:
"If you do not transfer these purchased items to your iTunes library, they wll be removed from the iPad."
It looks like that's exactly what happened. But that's very odd for two reasons:
(1) I've had most of those apps for quite a while and they've been transferred back to iTunes in previous syncronizations.
(2) Why should iTunes force delete apps that I've bought and paid for on my iTunes account, but for reasons of my own have chosen not to sync? It seems extreme. And it's a wide open window for this kind of unintended damage.