A beautiful detail can belong in a different project.

Cutting good work feels like a mistake, which is why so much of it survives where it does not fit. The line, the feature, the flourish is genuinely lovely, and that loveliness argues hard for staying even when it pulls the whole piece off balance. Quality and belonging are separate tests, and only one of them is about the thing itself. Keeping it is not loyalty to your talent; it is loyalty to a particular afternoon.

Start a file for pieces you remove but do not want to lose. Cut the one you have been defending and put it there. Knowing it is saved makes the decision easier to make.