diff --git a/pkg/kv/kvserver/store.go b/pkg/kv/kvserver/store.go
index 6c25a43159e9..84d6f2a3b6e5 100644
--- a/pkg/kv/kvserver/store.go
+++ b/pkg/kv/kvserver/store.go
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ var bulkIOWriteLimit = settings.RegisterByteSizeSetting(
 	settings.SystemOnly,
 	"kv.bulk_io_write.max_rate",
 	"the rate limit (bytes/sec) to use for writes to disk on behalf of bulk io ops",
-	1<<40,
+	1<<40, // 1 TiB
 ).WithPublic()
 
 // addSSTableRequestLimit limits concurrent AddSSTable requests.
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ var addSSTableRequestLimit = settings.RegisterIntSetting(
 	settings.SystemOnly,
 	"kv.bulk_io_write.concurrent_addsstable_requests",
 	"number of concurrent AddSSTable requests per store before queueing",
-	1,
+	math.MaxInt, // unlimited
 	settings.PositiveInt,
 )
 
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ var addSSTableAsWritesRequestLimit = settings.RegisterIntSetting(
 	settings.SystemOnly,
 	"kv.bulk_io_write.concurrent_addsstable_as_writes_requests",
 	"number of concurrent AddSSTable requests ingested as writes per store before queueing",
-	10,
+	math.MaxInt, // unlimited
 	settings.PositiveInt,
 )
 
diff --git a/pkg/storage/engine.go b/pkg/storage/engine.go
index 0dc531e4014d..faf6d244786f 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/engine.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/engine.go
@@ -1554,6 +1554,13 @@ var ingestDelayTime = settings.RegisterDurationSetting(
 	time.Second*5,
 )
 
+var preIngestDelayEnabled = settings.RegisterBoolSetting(
+	settings.SystemOnly,
+	"pebble.pre_ingest_delay.enabled",
+	"controls whether the pre-ingest delay mechanism is active",
+	false,
+)
+
 // PreIngestDelay may choose to block for some duration if L0 has an excessive
 // number of files in it or if PendingCompactionBytesEstimate is elevated. This
 // it is intended to be called before ingesting a new SST, since we'd rather
@@ -1567,6 +1574,9 @@ func preIngestDelay(ctx context.Context, eng Engine, settings *cluster.Settings)
 	if settings == nil {
 		return
 	}
+	if !preIngestDelayEnabled.Get(&settings.SV) {
+		return
+	}
 	metrics := eng.GetMetrics()
 	targetDelay := calculatePreIngestDelay(settings, metrics.Metrics)