Addons usually store their settings in a SavedVariables folder within the WTF/<Account> directory. Deleting the Interface/Addons folder will not delete these SavedVariables files, so if you ever reinstalled Gatherer, your existing data will still be available.
You should never ask Game Masters for help with addons. Their response will always be the same; delete your addons. Deleting your Addons folder is not really a good solution to your problem since all it is doing is... deleting all of your addons.
A less drastic solution would be to simply disable Gatherer on the Addons screen that you can get to from your Character screen after logging in.
Try using
Cartographer instead of Gatherer. Cartographer is a replacement for Gatherer and it also has some other useful features. Besides for keeping track of gathering nodes, one of my favorite features is how it shrinks down the World Map so that it doesn't take up your whole screen.