So sorry to hear this. It is one of my biggest fears. Maybe try another company for hard disk recovery there may be another technique they have not tried. A least hang on to the drive as maybe in the future there may be a way to get your data back. I hope this doesn't break your spirit.
It is not pleasant but now I've put it behind me and I'm moving forward. I'll go fetch the hard drive in the next couple days and you do have a good point, but the way the guy explained it to me doesn't sound like it would be recoverable by anyone - it has one point of failure and that's what failed.
My spirit isn't broken, just a bit dented. I'm finding everyone again and that's what's important. Thanks for the comment Dan, I hope you are doing well.