Can you disable apps without deleting to optimize theme performance?

If it’s an app that works based on code in your theme, you can comment out that code.

If it’s an app that injects code into theme via content_for_header, you can use some liquid code to identify the url and assign a new content_for_header with the app script removed.

If you’re not comfortable working in the code, you can either hire a Shopify developer or contact the app developers to ask if they can give detailed instructions how to temporarily disable the app.