There's always the danger of some plundering of stuff like shipwreck debris - and mostly that's harmless (the sea's done more to destroy and disburse N.C. stuff than the occasional visitor could do anyway).
The 'Maid' is not immune to some degree of vandalism or plundering, no doubt - and will be subject to that threat as long as it rests where it presently does. But the wholesale robbery of the artifact isn't very likely. It really isn't easy to reach most of the time, and the area seems somewhat well protected.
Seems to me if we're that concerned with it, the best approach is to somehow find sponsorship for preserving it against the real threat - the "teeth of time" as has been said here before. Nature probably remains a bigger threat than idle-talkers, despite her 'sleeping in the sand'. I've seen the CSS Hunley twice - first while still having her innards excavated, and recently having been gone through and now in the de-concretion / salt extraction phase. Time and nature are not the friends of these articles.
That means 'preservation' - and takes us to the argument of 'restoration or preservation' - and unfortunately, the 'market' for 'preservation', i.e. stablizing her 'as-is' so the public can see what time and elements do to a ditched P-38, is apparently weak. That takes us to the more obvious urge among those able to support such things: to restore 'Maid' to her former glory as a flying machine.
I don't know the answer to that - it is in the public's hands in a sense, I suspect. What will be paid for by those who would enjoy 'Maid's' emergence from the mud? To see her soaring and on display at airshows as a like-new P-38, or as a representative of 'what happens to a very interesting airplane after a fairly mundane, survived loss? The only thing interesting about the loss was the goof of running out of gas - she was not a combat victim per se.
So how to weigh 'Maid' against, say, Earhart's Electra? No comparison: the 'Maid' (to my thinking) is a mundane story of loss - not much there to draw me to stand in amazement at her deteriorated but preserved state; the Electra on the other hand, wherever she rests, is a very compelling artifact that can tell the story of how Earhart truly met her fate. If it is ever found and recovered, it would be a shame in my view to do other than strictly preserve the Electra for study - and I think those with the means to do so would by and large agree enough to help make that happen.
Another case comes to mind - that of my favorite 'Golden Age' pilot, Wiley Post and his loss in a hybrid Lockheed 'Orion-Explorer' (fuselage and tail from an Orion, a wing from an Explorer - which with over-sized floats proved to be a fatal combination). I've read all I could find on the man and of his loss, and was thunderstruck when I realized I was suddenly studying, in person, the very pilot's seat poor Post perished in during that crash at Point Barrow. The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington has the seat and some other remnants of that historic airplane on display in a glass case. Having read in detail how Post's body was found, I found myself facing the distorted seat that his own body had wrecked from the forces in that crash - eerie, and a bit goulish in a way. Yet there it was - a true aviation artifact that tells a story of how that flight ended. There's definitely a place for these things: that seat, restored, would be a travesty; it is odd to study something so sepulchral, I admit - and yet it is important for those who care about what happened.
So it would be with, say, Earhart's airplane, by example: were it a 'crash', I wouldn't relish looking at what the bodies inside did to surrounding structure or seats, such as with Post's artifact, but it would be important to interpret and understand. On the other hand, if not a crash but as TIGHAR hypothesizes, whatever is there would be just as important to interpret: is there evidence of a landing mishap? Was a gear sheared away (lefthand in particular)? What nature has done to the carcass during all these years of utter mystery as to her loss is a part of the story too. What of so many other things relating to the lost Electra and her last flight? And it would be priceless: who wants to risk totalling a 'restored' Earhart Electra for the sake of an airshow demonstration???
Sorry to go on so but it occurred to me to illustrate what I think are the considerations that go into these efforts and what direction is sensible to those who pay for them. Post's seat is gut-wrenching to see, yet priceless. I understand better now what happened on that terrible day in Point Barrow and can put it to rest, somewhat; it also reminds me of how committed the man was to his cause and how personal the cost was. Maid? If I'd run out of gas and ditched her, I'd be happy to see her fly again...
So personally, I don't see 'preservation as-is' with Maid - she'll either rot to pieces in time where she lies, or eventually be rescued and 'restored' so as to find the public's support in some fashion in my opinion: there is no compelling story of her loss such as with Earhart's Electra or Post's crashed Orion-Explorer.
Meanwhile I can't take bar-talk (or web-speak) too seriously - it is probably mostly restlessness over the thought of a presently largely intact P-38 just 'sitting out there for the taking' - and really knowing she's not so easy to 'take'. No doubt there's a threat that souvenir hunters may chip away at her at some time or other - but I suggest those doing the talking are the least likely to become culprits.