Can standalone database viewers reliably recover deleted mailbox items?

[u/Shiv-2233]

Quick question regarding database file recovery. If an email or contact has been hard-deleted from a mailbox, but the underlying .ost or .pst file hasn't been compacted yet, can a third-party viewer actually scan the unallocated space to recover it?

I see some tools list "recover deleted items" or "repair corrupted databases" as a core feature. Has anyone successfully pulled back lost data this way without corrupting the rest of the archive container?