diff --git a/HANDBOOK.md b/HANDBOOK.md
index 20c662365..e80562e84 100644
--- a/HANDBOOK.md
+++ b/HANDBOOK.md
@@ -172,6 +172,16 @@ Be careful when instantiating classes (ex: ComponentSet) that will default a Reg
 
 **Updating presets** If you do need to update a preset to make a breaking change, it's better to copy it to a new preset and give it a unique name (ex: `decomposeFooV2`). This preserves the existing behavior for existing projects with the old preset.
 
+Presets **can** remove strings from the default metadataRegistry by setting values to empty string ex:
+
+```json
+{
+  "childTypes": {
+    "somethingThatIsUsuallyAChild": ""
+  }
+}
+```
+
 ### Querying registry data
 
 While it’s perfectly fine to reference the registry export directly, the `RegistryAccess` class was created to make accessing the object a bit more streamlined. Querying types and searching the registry is oftentimes easier and cleaner this way and contains built-in checking for whether or not a metadata type exists. Here’s a comparison of using each:
diff --git a/src/registry/variants.ts b/src/registry/variants.ts
index 78532d9b4..59d4174ba 100644
--- a/src/registry/variants.ts
+++ b/src/registry/variants.ts
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ export type RegistryLoadInput = {
 
 /** combine the standard registration with any overrides specific in the sfdx-project.json */
 export const getEffectiveRegistry = (input?: RegistryLoadInput): MetadataRegistry =>
-  deepFreeze(firstLevelMerge(registryData as MetadataRegistry, loadVariants(input)));
+  deepFreeze(removeEmptyStrings(firstLevelMerge(registryData as MetadataRegistry, loadVariants(input))));
 
 /** read the project to get additional registry customizations and sourceBehaviorOptions */
 const loadVariants = ({ projectDir }: RegistryLoadInput = {}): MetadataRegistry => {
@@ -101,5 +101,19 @@ export const firstLevelMerge = (original: MetadataRegistry, overrides: MetadataR
   types: { ...original.types, ...(overrides.types ?? {}) },
   childTypes: { ...original.childTypes, ...(overrides.childTypes ?? {}) },
   suffixes: { ...original.suffixes, ...(overrides.suffixes ?? {}) },
-  strictDirectoryNames: { ...original.strictDirectoryNames, ...(overrides.strictDirectoryNames ?? {}) },
+  strictDirectoryNames: {
+    ...original.strictDirectoryNames,
+    ...(overrides.strictDirectoryNames ?? {}),
+  },
 });
+
+const removeEmptyStrings = (reg: MetadataRegistry): MetadataRegistry => ({
+  types: reg.types,
+  childTypes: removeEmptyString(reg.childTypes),
+  suffixes: removeEmptyString(reg.suffixes),
+  strictDirectoryNames: removeEmptyString(reg.strictDirectoryNames),
+});
+
+// presets can remove an entry by setting it to an empty string ex: { "childTypes": { "foo": "" } }
+const removeEmptyString = (obj: Record<string, string>): Record<string, string> =>
+  Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(obj).filter(([, v]) => v !== ''));
diff --git a/src/utils/filePathGenerator.ts b/src/utils/filePathGenerator.ts
index b133a0a73..273720fdb 100644
--- a/src/utils/filePathGenerator.ts
+++ b/src/utils/filePathGenerator.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ import { isPlainObject } from '@salesforce/ts-types';
 import { MetadataComponent } from '../resolve/types';
 import { META_XML_SUFFIX } from '../common/constants';
 import { RegistryAccess } from '../registry/registryAccess';
-import { registry } from '../registry/registry';
 
 Messages.importMessagesDirectory(__dirname);
 const messages = Messages.loadMessages('@salesforce/source-deploy-retrieve', 'sdr');
@@ -65,7 +64,7 @@ export const filePathsFromMetadataComponent = (
   }
 
   // this needs to be done before the other types because of potential overlaps
-  if (!type.children && Object.keys(registry.childTypes).includes(type.id)) {
+  if (!type.children && Object.keys(registryAccess.getRegistry().childTypes).includes(type.id)) {
     return getDecomposedChildType({ fullName, type }, packageDir);
   }
 
@@ -75,7 +74,7 @@ export const filePathsFromMetadataComponent = (
   }
 
   // basic metadata (with or without folders)
-  if (!type.children && !type.strategies && type.suffix) {
+  if (!type.children && type.suffix && (!type.strategies || type.strategies.transformer === 'decomposedLabels')) {
     return (type.inFolder ?? type.folderType ? generateFolders({ fullName, type }, packageDirWithTypeDir) : []).concat([
       join(packageDirWithTypeDir, `${fullName}.${type.suffix}${META_XML_SUFFIX}`),
     ]);