Quote - “Poser files (.cr2s, pz3s, etc) should never include mesh data (embedded geometry/object). Objects should be stored in the geometry folder, and should be pointed to with the proper path within the file.”

So I have some questions:

How do I remove the geometry from a .cr2?

If you load a cr2 that has embedded geometry in Poser, then then save it back to the figures palette, Poser will write an external obj file for the geometry and place it in the same folder as the cr2 (this does not work for props). You may like to move this obj file to the Geometries folder, and amend the two figureResFile lines in the cr2 to point to the new location, this is good praxis, but not essential.

It's not quite true that you should never include embedded geometry in anything. For figures, you should convert the geometry to an external obj file, but props (pp2) and prop hair (hr2) are quite happy to use embedded geometry.