Answering my own question… found a snippet online that resolves the issue – credit to whoever provided it!
add_action( 'wp_print_scripts', 'pp_deregister_javascript', 99 );
function pp_deregister_javascript() {
if(!is_admin())
{
wp_dequeue_script('wp-color-picker');
wp_deregister_script( 'jquery-ui-datepicker' );
wp_deregister_script( 'wp-color-picker-js-extra' );
wp_deregister_script( 'wp-color-picker' );
}
}