Today (2024-10-02) the docs for mutool clean
just doesn't include proper info for this.
mutool clean a.pdf b.pdf 2-N
In the Ubuntu page, there's a better description:
From Ubuntu Man pages:
pages: Comma separated list of page numbers and ranges (for example: 1,5,10-15,20-N), where the character N denotes the last page. If no pages are specified, then all pages will be included.
https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/jammy/man1/mutool.1.html#clean
Another place that refers to this usage:
https://pymupdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/module.html#cleaning-and-copying