diff --git a/.changeset/empty-colts-promise.md b/.changeset/empty-colts-promise.md
index 9f7f979b98..80cea4d42e 100644
--- a/.changeset/empty-colts-promise.md
+++ b/.changeset/empty-colts-promise.md
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@
 '@backstage/plugin-catalog-backend': patch
 ---
 
-Use a join based strategy for filtering, when having small page sizes
+Internal refactor of filter parsing logic.
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.ts
index 633b485604..cddc95f496 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.ts
@@ -142,7 +142,6 @@ export class DefaultEntitiesCatalog implements EntitiesCatalog {
         targetQuery: entitiesQuery,
         onEntityIdField: 'final_entities.entity_id',
         knex: db,
-        strategy: limit !== undefined && limit <= 500 ? 'join' : 'in',
       });
     }
 
@@ -305,7 +304,6 @@ export class DefaultEntitiesCatalog implements EntitiesCatalog {
             targetQuery: inner,
             onEntityIdField: 'final_entities.entity_id',
             knex: this.database,
-            strategy: limit <= 500 ? 'join' : 'in',
           });
         }
 
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/request/applyEntityFilterToQuery.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/request/applyEntityFilterToQuery.ts
index bf5c69d6b3..b2a7fb6708 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/request/applyEntityFilterToQuery.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/request/applyEntityFilterToQuery.ts
@@ -33,12 +33,6 @@ function isOrEntityFilter(
   return filter.hasOwnProperty('anyOf');
 }
 
-function isAndEntityFilter(
-  filter: EntityFilter,
-): filter is { allOf: EntityFilter[] } {
-  return filter.hasOwnProperty('allOf');
-}
-
 function isNegationEntityFilter(
   filter: EntityFilter,
 ): filter is { not: EntityFilter } {
@@ -122,102 +116,6 @@ function applyInStrategy(
   );
 }
 
-/**
- * Applies filtering through a number of JOINs with the search table. Example:
- *
- * ```
- * SELECT * FROM final_entities
- * LEFT OUTER JOIN search AS filter_0
- *   ON filter_0.entity_id = final_entities.entity_id
- *   AND filter_0.key = 'kind'
- * LEFT OUTER JOIN search AS filter_1
- *   ON filter_1.entity_id = final_entities.entity_id
- *   AND filter_1.key = 'spec.lifecycle'
- * WHERE (filter_0.value = 'component' AND filter_1.value = 'production')
- *   AND final_entities.final_entity IS NOT NULL
- * ```
- *
- * This strategy has very good performance on nested medium complexity queries
- * on pg, but can be slow on sqlite. It also has much larger variance than the
- * IN strategy: for small page sizes (< 500 or so, depending on circumstances)
- * it generates a fast plan, but then at some threshold switches over to scans
- * which suddenly lead to much worse performance than IN. Therefore it can be
- * important to pick carefully between the strategies.
- */
-function applyJoinStrategy(
-  filter: EntityFilter,
-  targetQuery: Knex.QueryBuilder,
-  onEntityIdField: string,
-): Knex.QueryBuilder {
-  // First we traverse the entire query tree to gather up all of the unique keys
-  // that are tested against, and make sure to make an outer join on the search
-  // table for each of them. As we do so, collect the table aliases made along
-  // the way. In the end, this map may contain for example
-  // `{ 'kind': 'filter_0', 'spec.lifecycle': 'filter_1' }`
-  const keyToSearchTableAlias = new Map<string, string>();
-  function recursiveMakeJoinAliases(filterNode: EntityFilter) {
-    if (isNegationEntityFilter(filterNode)) {
-      recursiveMakeJoinAliases(filterNode.not);
-    } else if (isOrEntityFilter(filterNode)) {
-      filterNode.anyOf.forEach(recursiveMakeJoinAliases);
-    } else if (isAndEntityFilter(filterNode)) {
-      filterNode.allOf.forEach(recursiveMakeJoinAliases);
-    } else {
-      const key = filterNode.key.toLowerCase();
-      if (!keyToSearchTableAlias.has(key)) {
-        const alias = `filter_${keyToSearchTableAlias.size}`;
-        keyToSearchTableAlias.set(key, alias);
-        targetQuery.leftOuterJoin({ [alias]: 'search' }, inner =>
-          inner
-            .on(`${alias}.entity_id`, onEntityIdField)
-            .andOnVal(`${alias}.key`, key),
-        );
-      }
-    }
-  }
-  recursiveMakeJoinAliases(filter);
-
-  // Then we traverse the query tree again, this time building up the actual
-  // WHERE query based on values from the aliases above
-  function recursiveBuildQuery(
-    queryBuilder: Knex.QueryBuilder,
-    filterNode: EntityFilter,
-  ) {
-    if (isNegationEntityFilter(filterNode)) {
-      queryBuilder.whereNot(inner =>
-        recursiveBuildQuery(inner, filterNode.not),
-      );
-    } else if (isOrEntityFilter(filterNode)) {
-      // This extra nesting is needed to make sure that the ORs are grouped
-      // separately and not "leak" next to ANDs in the caller's query.
-      queryBuilder.andWhere(inner => {
-        for (const subFilter of filterNode.anyOf) {
-          inner.orWhere(inner2 => recursiveBuildQuery(inner2, subFilter));
-        }
-      });
-    } else if (isAndEntityFilter(filterNode)) {
-      for (const subFilter of filterNode.allOf) {
-        queryBuilder.andWhere(inner => recursiveBuildQuery(inner, subFilter));
-      }
-    } else {
-      const key = filterNode.key.toLowerCase();
-      const values = filterNode.values?.map(v => v.toLowerCase());
-      const column = `${keyToSearchTableAlias.get(key)}.value`;
-      if (!values) {
-        queryBuilder.whereNotNull(column);
-      } else if (values.length === 1) {
-        // Null check needed since NULL = 'string' evaluates to NULL, not FALSE
-        queryBuilder.whereNotNull(column).andWhere(column, values[0]);
-      } else {
-        queryBuilder.whereIn(column, values);
-      }
-    }
-  }
-  recursiveBuildQuery(targetQuery, filter);
-
-  return targetQuery;
-}
-
 // The actual exported function
 export function applyEntityFilterToQuery(options: {
   filter: EntityFilter;
@@ -226,17 +124,7 @@ export function applyEntityFilterToQuery(options: {
   knex: Knex;
   strategy?: 'in' | 'join';
 }): Knex.QueryBuilder {
-  const {
-    filter,
-    targetQuery,
-    onEntityIdField,
-    knex,
-    strategy = 'in',
-  } = options;
-  if (strategy === 'in') {
-    return applyInStrategy(filter, targetQuery, onEntityIdField, knex, false);
-  } else if (strategy === 'join') {
-    return applyJoinStrategy(filter, targetQuery, onEntityIdField);
-  }
-  throw new Error(`Unsupported filtering strategy ${strategy}`);
+  const { filter, targetQuery, onEntityIdField, knex } = options;
+
+  return applyInStrategy(filter, targetQuery, onEntityIdField, knex, false);
 }