How to delete a file from Time Machine backups in Big Sur?
The history deletion and erasure tools are removed from Time Machine graphical interface on Big Sur.
If I had an HFS+ formatted drive and I needed to try and excise data surgically, I would find a Mac with an OS from before the deletion tools were removed. For APFS destinations, I’m not aware of any easy workaround.
At work, we typically take a drive out of rotation if it has problematic files and archive it under physical security until we erase it. Adding a new clean destination then erasing the old drive is how we are recycling or reclaiming drives now.