dvc remove --force

At the moment (v2.58.2), dvc remove {target.dvc} first unprotects {target.dvc}, at least when applied to .dvc files.

I'm sure that this is a good reason for this, but this can be painfully slow for large files.

I'd like to request a --force option that just does all the other dvc remove stuff, but without unprotecting the targets first. All the normal caveats around use --force options would apply, and it might be worth double-checking with the user before carrying it out, as is done with dvc commit, for example.

This would be particularly useful for large imports, where we are not afraid to delete the data from the workspace because we are confident that we can always import it again from the source data registry.

An alternative name for this kind of option might be --no-unprotect or similar.

Start by tracing the dvc remove command and compare its behavior with the confirmation flow used by dvc commit. Define how a --force or --no-unprotect option should skip unprotecting targets while retaining the other removal behavior, including any confirmation; done when that behavior is covered by the relevant command tests.