Revert "Fix issue with removal of elements"

This reverts commit 496236f95a7704fd6dcc1b82c3a60db83baf2a82.
Revert "Retry multiple times before giving up on fetching splits"

This reverts commit f9eb76d09297f98b4d9cadd9b2269c3e90c3cc13.
retain formatting, fix retry bug