you can tell Magento not to get rid of generated code and static files:
magento setup:upgrade --keep-generated
From docs:
where --keep-generated is an optional argument that does not update
static view files. This optional argument is for use only in limited
circumstances by experienced system integrators. It should be used
only in production mode. It should not be used in developer mode.
Please note you can get into trouble doing this if you're not careful. I would stick to using the proper deployment process.
Why do you want to avoid deleting the file? Is it just to speed up the deployment?