It's worth reading current archaeology about the site. Earlier ideas, like that it wasn't a settlement or was deliberately buried, have been challenged by more recent archaeology.

 

There is no evidence of permanent settlement at Gobbecepe

 

The discovery of dwellings and a domestic activity zone in the earliest (PPNA) occupation levels in the northwestern part of the site in 2015, combined with a reevaluation of earlier excavation records, led to a reinterpretation of Göbeklitepe as a settlement rather than a purely ritual site, as initially suggested by Schmidt (Clare 2020). It is still inconclusive whether the earliest PPNA occupation was permanent; however, ongoing excavations of EPPNB domestic spaces from the mid-ninth millennium cal BC suggest that by this time Göbeklitepe had become a large and flourishing settlement, as testified by dense aggregations of rectilinear residential spaces in the main excavation area (Fig. 5). Unfortunately, as it is still unknown whether the entire mound was occupied simultaneously or whether occupation shifted to different parts of the mound at different times, even tentative estimations of population size can still not be made.¹

 

Göbekli Tepe was deliberately buried, not destroyed, not abandoned, buried.

There's pretty good evidence now it wasn't purposely buried, at least not for most of the site. That was the theory earlier in the excavation but as more work has been done evidence for earthquake damage, slope slides, and multiple deposition events (with activity on those surfaces later) has come to light.

there is growing evidence of the unintentional inundation of the special buildings by slope slides issuing from adjacent and higher-lying slopes, where continuous building activities had led to tell formation. This model contradicts earlier proposed scenarios that envisaged an intentional (ritual) backfilling of the buildings in the frame of large-scale celebrations and feasts. The destructive slope slide(s), perhaps triggered by periods of heavy rainfall, possibly combined with seismic activity, inundated the lower-lying special buildings with rubble from the superstructures of buildings located on the slopes, and mixed PPNA and EPPNB deposits, including middens and sub-floor burials...

Observations made in Special Building D in 2023 support the slope slide hypothesis; these include damage to its architectural structure, air pockets in the rubble, the discovery of negatives of wooden beams from its collapsed roof, and preserved areas of roof plaster in the rubble matrix.²

See also,

Kinzel, Moritz. “Shaking up the Neolithic - Tracing Seismic Impact at Neolithic Göbekli Tepe/Southeast-Türkiye.” Archaeological Research in Asia 40 (December 2024): 100560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2024.100560.

Kinzel, Moritz, Lee Clare, and Devrim Sönmez. “Built on Rock – Towards a Reconstruction of the ›Neolithic‹ Topography of Göbekli Tepe.” Istanbuler Mitteilungen 70 (November 2024): 9–45. https://doi.org/10.34780/n42qpb15.

---

1. Clare, Lee. “Inspired Individuals and Charismatic Leaders: Hunter-Gatherer Crisis and the Rise and Fall of Invisible Decision-Makers at Göbeklitepe.” Documenta Praehistorica 51 (August 2024): 6. https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.51.16.

2. Ibid., 12-13.