diff --git a/docs/generated/settings/settings.html b/docs/generated/settings/settings.html
index b8a21c736fa0..0febaf6cb680 100644
--- a/docs/generated/settings/settings.html
+++ b/docs/generated/settings/settings.html
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@
 <tr><td><div id="setting-kv-replica-stats-addsst-request-size-factor" class="anchored"><code>kv.replica_stats.addsst_request_size_factor</code></div></td><td>integer</td><td><code>50000</code></td><td>the divisor that is applied to addsstable request sizes, then recorded in a leaseholders QPS; 0 means all requests are treated as cost 1</td><td>Dedicated/Self-Hosted</td></tr>
 <tr><td><div id="setting-kv-replication-reports-interval" class="anchored"><code>kv.replication_reports.interval</code></div></td><td>duration</td><td><code>1m0s</code></td><td>the frequency for generating the replication_constraint_stats, replication_stats_report and replication_critical_localities reports (set to 0 to disable)</td><td>Dedicated/Self-Hosted</td></tr>
 <tr><td><div id="setting-kv-snapshot-rebalance-max-rate" class="anchored"><code>kv.snapshot_rebalance.max_rate</code></div></td><td>byte size</td><td><code>32 MiB</code></td><td>the rate limit (bytes/sec) to use for rebalance and upreplication snapshots</td><td>Dedicated/Self-Hosted</td></tr>
+<tr><td><div id="setting-kv-snapshot-receiver-excise-enabled" class="anchored"><code>kv.snapshot_receiver.excise.enabled</code></div></td><td>boolean</td><td><code>false</code></td><td>set to true to use excises instead of range deletions for KV snapshots</td><td>Dedicated/Self-Hosted</td></tr>
 <tr><td><div id="setting-kv-transaction-max-intents-bytes" class="anchored"><code>kv.transaction.max_intents_bytes</code></div></td><td>integer</td><td><code>4194304</code></td><td>maximum number of bytes used to track locks in transactions</td><td>Serverless/Dedicated/Self-Hosted</td></tr>
 <tr><td><div id="setting-kv-transaction-max-refresh-spans-bytes" class="anchored"><code>kv.transaction.max_refresh_spans_bytes</code></div></td><td>integer</td><td><code>4194304</code></td><td>maximum number of bytes used to track refresh spans in serializable transactions</td><td>Serverless/Dedicated/Self-Hosted</td></tr>
 <tr><td><div id="setting-kv-transaction-reject-over-max-intents-budget-enabled" class="anchored"><code>kv.transaction.reject_over_max_intents_budget.enabled</code></div></td><td>boolean</td><td><code>false</code></td><td>if set, transactions that exceed their lock tracking budget (kv.transaction.max_intents_bytes) are rejected instead of having their lock spans imprecisely compressed</td><td>Serverless/Dedicated/Self-Hosted</td></tr>
diff --git a/pkg/kv/kvserver/mvcc_gc_queue.go b/pkg/kv/kvserver/mvcc_gc_queue.go
index 9baf40681984..a00d12ca30b4 100644
--- a/pkg/kv/kvserver/mvcc_gc_queue.go
+++ b/pkg/kv/kvserver/mvcc_gc_queue.go
@@ -720,7 +720,7 @@ func (mgcq *mvccGCQueue) process(
 	}
 
 	var snap storage.Reader
-	if repl.store.cfg.SharedStorageEnabled || storage.UseEFOS.Get(&repl.ClusterSettings().SV) {
+	if repl.store.cfg.SharedStorageEnabled || storage.ShouldUseEFOS(&repl.ClusterSettings().SV) {
 		efos := repl.store.TODOEngine().NewEventuallyFileOnlySnapshot(rditer.MakeReplicatedKeySpans(desc))
 		if util.RaceEnabled {
 			ss := rditer.MakeReplicatedKeySpanSet(desc)
diff --git a/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_consistency.go b/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_consistency.go
index f9c9e296d15e..fe7dc55d482f 100644
--- a/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_consistency.go
+++ b/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_consistency.go
@@ -655,7 +655,7 @@ func (r *Replica) computeChecksumPostApply(
 	// Raft-consistent (i.e. not in the middle of an AddSSTable).
 	spans := rditer.MakeReplicatedKeySpans(&desc)
 	var snap storage.Reader
-	if r.store.cfg.SharedStorageEnabled || storage.UseEFOS.Get(&r.ClusterSettings().SV) {
+	if r.store.cfg.SharedStorageEnabled || storage.ShouldUseEFOS(&r.ClusterSettings().SV) {
 		efos := r.store.TODOEngine().NewEventuallyFileOnlySnapshot(spans)
 		if util.RaceEnabled {
 			ss := rditer.MakeReplicatedKeySpanSet(&desc)
diff --git a/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_raftstorage.go b/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_raftstorage.go
index 4db097d459c4..0c0d26357e75 100644
--- a/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_raftstorage.go
+++ b/pkg/kv/kvserver/replica_raftstorage.go
@@ -240,7 +240,7 @@ func (r *Replica) GetSnapshot(
 	var snap storage.Reader
 	var startKey roachpb.RKey
 	r.raftMu.Lock()
-	if r.store.cfg.SharedStorageEnabled || storage.UseEFOS.Get(&r.ClusterSettings().SV) {
+	if r.store.cfg.SharedStorageEnabled || storage.ShouldUseEFOS(&r.ClusterSettings().SV) {
 		var ss *spanset.SpanSet
 		r.mu.RLock()
 		spans := rditer.MakeAllKeySpans(r.mu.state.Desc) // needs unreplicated to access Raft state
diff --git a/pkg/kv/kvserver/store_snapshot.go b/pkg/kv/kvserver/store_snapshot.go
index 07d070aca828..0fd62b969c53 100644
--- a/pkg/kv/kvserver/store_snapshot.go
+++ b/pkg/kv/kvserver/store_snapshot.go
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import (
 	"io"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/clusterversion"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/keys"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/kv/kvpb"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/kv/kvserver/allocator/storepool"
@@ -499,8 +500,9 @@ func (kvSS *kvBatchSnapshotStrategy) Receive(
 	// TODO(jeffreyxiao): Re-evaluate as the default range size grows.
 	keyRanges := rditer.MakeReplicatedKeySpans(header.State.Desc)
 
-	doExcise := header.SharedReplicate
-	if doExcise && !s.cfg.SharedStorageEnabled {
+	doExcise := header.SharedReplicate || (storage.UseExciseForSnapshots.Get(&s.ClusterSettings().SV) &&
+		s.cfg.Settings.Version.IsActive(ctx, clusterversion.V23_2_PebbleFormatVirtualSSTables))
+	if header.SharedReplicate && !s.cfg.SharedStorageEnabled {
 		return noSnap, sendSnapshotError(ctx, s, stream, errors.New("cannot accept shared sstables"))
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/storage/pebble.go b/pkg/storage/pebble.go
index dde7e17216c9..2f1bf28006b8 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/pebble.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/pebble.go
@@ -101,7 +101,10 @@ var ValueBlocksEnabled = settings.RegisterBoolSetting(
 
 // UseEFOS controls whether uses of pebble Snapshots should use
 // EventuallyFileOnlySnapshots instead. This reduces write-amp with the main
-// tradeoff being higher space-amp.
+// tradeoff being higher space-amp. Note that UseExciseForSnapshot, if true,
+// effectively causes EventuallyFileOnlySnapshots to be used as well.
+//
+// Note: Do NOT read this setting directly. Use ShouldUseEFOS() instead.
 var UseEFOS = settings.RegisterBoolSetting(
 	settings.SystemOnly,
 	"storage.experimental.eventually_file_only_snapshots.enabled",
@@ -110,6 +113,21 @@ var UseEFOS = settings.RegisterBoolSetting(
 		"storage.experimental.eventually_file_only_snapshots.enabled", false), /* defaultValue */
 	settings.WithPublic)
 
+// UseExciseForSnapshots controls whether virtual-sstable-based excises should
+// be used instead of range deletions for clearing out replica contents as part
+// of a rebalance/recovery snapshot application. Applied on the receiver side.
+// Note that setting this setting to true also effectively causes UseEFOS above
+// to become true. This interaction is why this setting is defined in the
+// storage package even though it mostly affects KV.
+var UseExciseForSnapshots = settings.RegisterBoolSetting(
+	settings.SystemOnly,
+	"kv.snapshot_receiver.excise.enabled",
+	"set to true to use excises instead of range deletions for KV snapshots",
+	util.ConstantWithMetamorphicTestBool(
+		"kv.snapshot_receiver.excise.enabled", false), /* defaultValue */
+	settings.WithPublic,
+)
+
 // IngestAsFlushable controls whether ingested sstables that overlap the
 // memtable may be lazily ingested: written to the WAL and enqueued in the list
 // of flushables (eg, memtables, large batches and now lazily-ingested
@@ -129,6 +147,13 @@ var IngestAsFlushable = settings.RegisterBoolSetting(
 	util.ConstantWithMetamorphicTestBool(
 		"storage.ingest_as_flushable.enabled", true))
 
+// ShouldUseEFOS returns true if either of the UseEFOS or UseExciseForSnapshots
+// cluster settings are enabled, and EventuallyFileOnlySnapshots must be used
+// to guarantee snapshot-like semantics.
+func ShouldUseEFOS(settings *settings.Values) bool {
+	return UseEFOS.Get(settings) || UseExciseForSnapshots.Get(settings)
+}
+
 // EngineKeyCompare compares cockroach keys, including the version (which
 // could be MVCC timestamps).
 func EngineKeyCompare(a, b []byte) int {