A storage system in one embodiment comprises a plurality of storage devices configured to store user data pages and metadata pages. Each of the user data pages has a logical address and a content-based signature derived from content of that data page, and each of the metadata pages characterizes a plurality of the user data pages and associates the content-based signatures of those user data pages with respective physical blocks in the storage devices. In conjunction with release of logical address space in the storage system, the released logical address space is made available to users in a first order based at least in part on released logical address, and multiple dereferencing operations are accumulated for respective ones of the physical blocks corresponding to the released logical address space. The accumulated dereferencing operations for the physical blocks are executed in a second order that differs from the first order.