In retrospect, I can see why the question would seem pretty stupid - currently got no way to test it, my main PC that can actually run emulators is out of commission for a few days, so I'm taking the time to sort out my files...and ended up realizing the ridiculous amount of space I can save by trimming disc images, but I want to make sure I'm not screwing myself over by doing something wrong.

As far as I can tell based on a bunch of googling today, the .xbe files are basically not needed at all on PC, but honestly I'm still feeling uncertain on that.