How does the variant create daily limit impact product updates?

[TravisImagine]

Hello,

I recently started getting this message when importing items. After some research it looks like this limit is in place to stop people from hammering their systems with item creates. I have a couple questions about this limit and how it's calculated.

1. I am doing testing of a new import method. I have been deleting and recreating the products. My first time receiving this message I had 0 products in my store at that time. Are deleted variants counted against that limit of 50,000?

2. If delete variants are counted against this limit, is there any way to go in and reduce those?

3. I have an external system that manages the inventory. This external system automatically, every 15 minutes updates the inventory levels using a bulk operation to run multiple instances of productUpdate. Is productUpdate silently deleting all the variants as well? Adding to the already invisible 50,000 variants?

Thank you,

Travis