How to Permantently Delete Linked Audio From Clips

So around a year ago, I ran into an issue while editing. Id take a video (lets say 2 min length), unlink the audio, delete the audio file because i dont need it, then cut the clips and drag them to the Project part to sort out and edit later. The clip could be 2 secs visually but were listed as 2 minutes because the audio was still linked unbeknownst to me. If i dragged one clip into the timeline, it was fine, just the 2 second clip and no audio. If I dragged multiple at once, I'd have long blocks of audio and the clip itself floating from where it theoretically would have been along the audio track.

When I posted about this last year, a user suggested I edit the source points to see if that would help, which I'm finally getting around to because its a bit too complicated and ridiculous to me. After much frustration, I can decently trim the audio to around the video length but this doesn't fix my problem. Editing through the source moniter ruins my clips and there's still audio linked that drags down with my clips. I want it gone completely and I dont understand why unlinking and deleting it isnt enough

So how I completely remove all traces of audio from a clip so that it doesn't show further