Deleted all apps, but MacOS reinstaller still asks for more space: 105GB vs 53GB discrepancy

• I was asked by Apple Support to reinstall MacOS
• My hard drive has 105GB of free storage. I literally deleted all apps.
• But the reinstaller sees only 53GB of free storage and asks for 6 more GB
• We did disk repair and all that
• Shows 53GB in safe mode, shows 105GB in normal boot (outside safe mode)

Any thoughts? How can I get extra storage. I have literally deleted all apps. I have nothing left.

Please help.