Yes, I have encountered this problem in the past when I first start making games. It's not really about whether hiding or deleting sprite (in any media) is better. It's about getting a full understanding of the structure of the game code.
The error you're seeing is probably the fact that when the code goes round it's loop for the second time it's trying to create a sprite (or assign a sprite ID) that already exists from the first time the code was run.
Chances are that you're code is doing something like this:
1: Load media - splash screen, game sprites, sound effects and so on
2: Hide game sprite
3: Show splash screen
4: Press play game
5: Hide splash screen
6: Show game sprites
7: Play game loop
8: Player dies
9: Show game over
10: Go back to step 1
Where as what you need is:
1: Load media - splash screen, game sprites, sound effects and so on
2: Hide game sprite
3: Show splash screen
4: Press play game
5: Hide splash screen
6: Show game sprites
7: Play game loop
8: Player dies
9: Show game over screen
10: Go back to step
2
The difference here is that the code never returns to step 1, media is only loaded once.
It may be that the splash screen is large and uses too much resources so instead of loading it in step 1, it's loaded at step 3 and deleted in step 5.
The best way to sort this out is to create a flow diagram that shows the overall structure of the game. The level of detail you go into depends on how well you already understand the structure. For instance, in the ten step example I didn't detail when the media for the "game over" screen is loaded. It can be loaded in step 1 and then hidden. It can be loaded between step 8 and 9 and then deleted before step 10, for instance.
I don't believe there's a correct answers as to when to delete sprites (or other media) or to hide them. It sometimes depend on how much media you need to load. If there's not much then loading it all at once can make your code tidier. However, if there's a lot of media then you may want to only load what the game needs at that particular stage, whether it's a menu at the start of the game or the sprites required for the level that's going to be played next.