Minecraft InhabitedTime chunk purge PowerShell script (very slow)

MC_World_Scrubber.ps1

$nbtUtil = "<path to>\NBTUtil.exe"
$saveRoot = "$($env:APPDATA)\.minecraft\saves"
$targetWorldName = "<name of world>"
$worldRoot = "$saveRoot\$targetWorldName"

Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Path "$worldRoot\region" |
#select -Skip 10 -First 1 -last 20 |
% {
    $regionFile = $_
    Write-Warning "Currently processing $regionFile"
    $fileName = $_.FullName
    $chunkLines = & $nbtUtil --path="$fileName" --print | findstr Chunk
    $chunkLines | % {
        $chunkLine = $_
        Write-Host "Currently processing $chunkLine"
        $fragments = (($chunkLine -isplit '\[')[1] -isplit '\]')[0] -isplit ', '
        $x = $fragments[0]
        $z = $fragments[1]
        # Perform intended operation
        $path = "$filename\$x.$z"
        $inhabitedTimeString = ((& $nbtUtil --path="$path\Level\InhabitedTime" --print) -isplit ": ")[1]
        $inhabitedTime = [Int]::Parse($inhabitedTimeString)
        if ($inhabitedTime -eq 0) {
            Write-Warning "Deleting $x.$z"
            #Write-Warning "Command: $nbtUtil --delete --path=`"$path`""
            & $nbtUtil --delete --path="$path"
        }
    }
}