I used to be an annihilationist but am not now.
Why?
I can see the type between the Garden of Eden, the Israelite Camp, Jerusalem, and the New Jerusalem
In each case, individuals are banished from each of these "holy zones", which are characterized by God's presence, but they still continue to exist. For example, Adam and Eve were banished from God's presence, those placed outside the Israelite camp and the city environment of Jerusalem were deemed to be dead, and those placed outside the New Jerusalem are dead in this sense.
Not only that, but the words "death", "destruction" and "perish" can be used in a metaphorical sense, because those who don't know God are considered to be spiritually dead, even though they still walk around and breath. See Ephesians 2:1-4 for an example of this.
Being outside of God's blessing-presence is, in essence, death, and being joined with Jesus and living in union with him is life. So, no one, whether physically living or not, is alive in a spiritual sense outside of Christ.
Those who believe in annihilationism tend to have a low regard for God's holiness and the seriousness of man's sin. In their minds, they think that rebels don't deserve to suffer eternal punishment. Additionally, they tend to think that a good God wouldn't do such a thing, because they are superimposing their own self upon God.
God is full of wrath concerning violations of his holiness.
I am guessing most annihilationists don't think Satan and the evil angels will escape eternal punishment, but for some reason, they don't see man suffering the same fate. If God will punish the angelic rebels by continual torment, what would cause him to fail to do this to humans?
By the way, one of my friends mentioned that he had no issue with eternal punishment because the individuals who suffer it are, in essence, demons in behavior. I find this to be compelling personally.
I believe dispensationalism is largely to blame for annihilationist teachings. Dispensationalism promotes a hermeneutic which cannot reason beyond the wooden literalism that most annihilationists are applying concerning death, destruction, and perishing. After I abandoned dispensationalist thinking, I was able to see the parallels that I mentioned above. So, in some ways I blame dispensationalists for much of the simplistic thinking that leads to annihilationism. Seeing shadows and types has changed my worldview significantly.