At present moodle_database::delete_records() issues TRUNCATE TABLE queries to clear data from tables where no $conditions are provided. Whilst this may result in quicker deletions there are semantic differences between the two instructions:

• Truncations remove all data and reset the primary key
• Deletions remove the specified data and don't reset the primary key

This causes practical issues with at least SQL Server databases (I haven't tested others) with replication enabled:

SQLState: 42000

Error Code: 4711

Message: [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server][SQL Server]Cannot truncate table '[snip]' because it is published for replication or enabled for Change Data Capture.

I raised this in developer chat a few weeks ago and opinion on a fix seemed mixed (see attached or link).