I really don’t understand how people lose files during updates, I get a few comments like this every update, but since it’s not happening to everyone (or even a lot of people) – I really don’t know, it has to be some type of setting/app on your device (like a system cleaner/space-maker aka deletes “junk” files to make space?) because SN does not delete it’s own files

sorry, there’s really nothing I can do…
you might be able to use a “file recovery” app to un-delete the /Stick Nodes/ folder on the main storage