One of the toughest things with editing work is convincing writers to “kill your darlings,” meaning, to convince them to let go of something in a given piece of writing or a keynote speech that charms them, that they’re deeply attached to, or that they worked hard to create. Frankly, it drives me fn bananas when people are super precious about their writing. Fight for the important stuff, but loving things that don’t drive at the main point you’re trying to make is a fool’s errand. And, frankly, can look a bit amateur-ishy.
I still operate by the “no wasted work” motto. So just because a particular section or phrase in a piece is written well doesn’t mean it necessarily belongs there in that particular piece if it doesn’t drive the narrative/single main point forward. Cut it out, but save it for another piece if it’s that important to you. Problem solved.
A powerful essay, op-ed or speech can be totally derailed with too many sidebars, too many detours off the main point, and certainly by too many things that simply aren’t relevant to the main point.
Especially in dual-narrative stories, less is more. There could be some fabulously interesting thing that did in fact occur in the real-life event you’re recounting, but unless it drives the narrative forward, save it and trust that a single event can generate multiple pieces of work, each standing on its own perfectly well.