Safari on iPad uses excessive storage

Safari browser on my iPad typically ends up using 50GB+ of storage space after a week of use with only 5 - 10 tabs open for sites like Google Drive, OneDrive, Bing search, Google search, my university library search page and a Google Sites site.

When I look at Settings > General > iPad Storage it shows Safari using 59GB of storage!!

When I go into the Safari details there, it shows “Website Data” is only using 1 - 2 GB of space, and the other categories like Offline Reading List, History, Downloads and Extensions are using zero or negligible amounts of storage.

When I use the “Remove All Website Data” command and reboot the iPad, Safari is still using over 55GB of storage! The only way to really clear out the cached data that is using so much storage is to go use the Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data feature.

This happens with Firefox browser on iPad as well.

Why does Safari consistently end up using such an excessive amount of storage? It seems to be wildly mismanaging its resources, or iPadOS is very bad at clearing unused cached data with browsers.

I using an iPad Air (5th Generation) with iPadOS 16.2 and 256GB of storage.

I’ve seen other people reporting this same issue with older versions of iPadOS (e.g. her: Safari using excessive amounts of storage - Apple Community ).

Apple needs to address this please! It makes using this elegant device so frustrating at times.

Thanks.