diff --git a/packages/rn-tester/android/app/build.gradle b/packages/rn-tester/android/app/build.gradle
index 13c150cb30df..ddd143e716c3 100644
--- a/packages/rn-tester/android/app/build.gradle
+++ b/packages/rn-tester/android/app/build.gradle
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ project.ext.react = [
     inputExcludes: ["android/**", "./**", ".gradle/**"],
     composeSourceMapsPath: "$rootDir/scripts/compose-source-maps.js",
     hermesCommand: "$rootDir/node_modules/hermes-engine/%OS-BIN%/hermesc",
-    enableHermesForVariant: { def v -> v.name.contains("hermes") },
+    enableHermesForVariant: { def name -> name.contains("hermes") },
     jsRootDir: "$rootDir/RNTester",
     enableCodegen: true, // Keep this here until it's sync'ed to Android template.
     enableFabric: (System.getenv('USE_FABRIC') ?: '0').toBoolean(),
diff --git a/react.gradle b/react.gradle
index 5995ad5fbb32..7c0d461aecbe 100644
--- a/react.gradle
+++ b/react.gradle
@@ -94,6 +94,24 @@ android {
         resValue "integer", "react_native_dev_server_port", reactNativeDevServerPort()
         resValue "integer", "react_native_inspector_proxy_port", reactNativeInspectorProxyPort()
     }
+
+    packagingOptions {
+        // Delete the VM related libraries that this build doesn't need.
+        // The application can manage this manually by setting 'enableVmCleanup: false'
+        //
+        // This should really be done by packaging all Hermes related libs into
+        // two separate HermesDebug and HermesRelease AARs, but until then we'll just exclude them here
+        def taskName = getGradle().getStartParameter().getTaskRequests().toString()
+        if (enableHermesForVariant(taskName) && enableVmCleanup) {
+            exclude "**/libjsc*.so"
+            if (taskName.toLowerCase().contains("release")) {
+                exclude '**/libhermes-inspector.so'
+                exclude '**/libhermes-executor-debug.so'
+            } else {
+                exclude '**/libhermes-executor-release.so'
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }
 
 afterEvaluate {
@@ -127,7 +145,7 @@ afterEvaluate {
             execCommand.addAll([*nodeExecutableAndArgs, cliPath])
         }
 
-        def enableHermes = enableHermesForVariant(variant)
+        def enableHermes = enableHermesForVariant(variant.name)
 
         def currentBundleTask = tasks.create(
             name: "bundle${targetName}JsAndAssets",
@@ -311,46 +329,5 @@ afterEvaluate {
         if (buildPreBundleTask != null) {
             buildPreBundleTask.dependsOn(currentAssetsCopyTask)
         }
-
-        // Delete the VM related libraries that this build doesn't need.
-        // The application can manage this manually by setting 'enableVmCleanup: false'
-        //
-        // This should really be done by packaging all Hermes releated libs into
-        // two separate HermesDebug and HermesRelease AARs, but until then we'll
-        // kludge it by deleting the .so files out of the /transforms/ directory.
-        def isRelease = targetName.toLowerCase().contains("release")
-        def libDir = "$buildDir/intermediates/transforms/"
-        def vmSelectionAction = {
-            fileTree(libDir).matching {
-                if (enableHermes) {
-                    // For Hermes, delete all the libjsc* files
-                    include "**/libjsc*.so"
-
-                    if (isRelease) {
-                        // Reduce size by deleting the debugger/inspector
-                        include '**/libhermes-inspector.so'
-                        include '**/libhermes-executor-debug.so'
-                    } else {
-                        // Release libs take precedence and must be removed
-                        // to allow debugging
-                        include '**/libhermes-executor-release.so'
-                    }
-                } else {
-                    // For JSC, delete all the libhermes* files
-                    include "**/libhermes*.so"
-                }
-            }.visit { details ->
-                def targetVariant = ".*/transforms/[^/]*/${targetPath}/.*"
-                def path = details.file.getAbsolutePath().replace(File.separatorChar, '/' as char)
-                if (path.matches(targetVariant) && details.file.isFile()) {
-                    details.file.delete()
-                }
-            }
-        }
-
-        if (enableVmCleanup) {
-            def task = tasks.findByName("package${targetName}")
-            task.doFirst(vmSelectionAction)
-        }
     }
 }