Hi @emd0083,
Thank you for your question and for all of the useful context you shared! I can confirm that Specify 6 does indeed add new WorkBench data sets (in the workbench table) each time a user performs a Batch Edit.
This behavior was intentional when implemented, but it has since been reconsidered. Specify 7’s new Batch Edit feature retains data sets until the user deletes them, and users can remove them at any time.
Deleting these datasets directly should not cause any issues as long as you are only removing data from the workbenchdataitem, workbenchrow, workbench, workbenchtemplatemappingitem, and workbenchtemplate tables. It sounds like you’ve already developed a workflow to perform these deletions in the correct order, so you should be totally OK to proceed with their removal.
Before running any SQL statements on the database, you should take a complete backup, verify that it is functioning as expected, and then perform the steps on a copy to ensure everything is in order.