merge: separate worker functions for batch remove and batch get
The old code had one function that could do 2 different things. First,
is was called a bunch of times to do one thing. Next, it was called a
bunch of times to do the other thing. That gave unnecessary complexity
and a dispatch overhead. Having separate functions is "obviously" better
than having a function that can do two things, depending on its parameters.
It also prepares the code for the next refactorings.
