I have some debt on my credit report that is from

Please keep checking back for replies, I just wanted to acknowledge your post.

I think you are getting bad, or only half-good, advice.
Old debt is NEVER good to have in your CR.
What you should do first is list the date and type of every delinquency, charge-off, and collection currently shown in your CR.

For delinquencies that still have unpaid debt associated with them, they would be my first priority, for their severity of credit reporting can increase by further posting of a charge-off, collection, or even legal action.
How, or even whether, you choose to pay any delinquent debt depends on several factors.
Has your statute of limitations (SOL) expired?
When is each derog scheduled to drop on its own accord due to old age?
Each OC monthly account delinquency drops after 7 years from its individual date of delinquency, and each charge-off or collection drops after 7 years plus 180-days from the DOFD on the OC account.
Where I think the advice you received may have missed the point is that you dont have to request or receive account deletion to address the deletion of old derogs. There are techniques,such as a pay-for-delete (PFD) offer that you can attempt. In that process, you dont ask for deletion of the account, jsut the derogs reported on the account. If accepted, you retain all of the benefits of an account in good-standing, absent the drogs.
I doubht that your adviser told you that deleting only old derogs would harm your credit score. If he or she did, then I would get a new advisor.