Lightroom has superior image management capabilities, zero touch photo editing, and will allow you to manage the files exactly where they are, in directories of your own choosing. Edits and metadata can be written to the image, to a new image, or to XMP sidecar files, depending on what you prefer. The actual images are not stored in the library. Lightroom uses a library to hold the edits and metadata for your images.
You can browse, tweak and yes, delete photos within your directory. It will publish to the directories as well. In fact, it won't even touch your photos. Lightroom actually uses the directory structure you define, and will use it happily. Doesn't Lightroom use a Library? Yes, Lightroom uses a Library, but perhaps not in the way you think.
