I wasn't aware that age or incompleteness were criteria for summary deletion.

Even if they were, mass deletion of  these objects is not what a changeset comment of "Corrected tag issues around Ingatestone" suggests.

The area:highway polygons surrounding the highway lines are different, since they represent different things about the roads. You may consider them unnecessary duplication, but nobody is forcing anyone else to process geometries or tags for which they have no use.