.24 has been flat out crashing on asset deletion.
I would suggest deleting the files/folders in explorer or whatever OS.
after deletion open the project and fix up redirection inside content folder (may be superfluous, but worth the extra 10 seconds).
If a level is still using the assets, you’ll get notifications when you publish about the asset not existing.
they’ll also be in the log when you open the level. And you’ll likely find them as empty actors within the list of level assets.
To get the game published and the errors resolved you’ll. need to delete or replace all those references.