“To destroy money in the economy, all you have to do is repay loans from deposits.¹ ²”

That is incorrect. Technically, in making loans banks do not ‘create money’. They extend credit, which is then used to make purchases and from there gets circulated in the economy like ‘real’ money (i.e. currency). Like currency, it stays in the economy (though it might be parked in an account at a bank) unless it is captured by the CB. Repaying a loan is only another step in the continuing circulation of ‘money’.

Actual money — currency — is what’s created in QE, when the CB has the treasury of the central government ‘print money’ for it to use to by assets from financial institutions. Actual money is also created when the CB has the treasury create currency for the CB to use to buy newly issued debt in the CB’s role as lender of last resort.

Really, once created, whether in the form of currency or an extension credit, money is never “destroyed.” Money that is in the hands of the CB is, however, (for the moment) out of circulation.