I think this clue style has been used in published crosswords before, with the additional constraint that the removed letters are removed in order and only once

I think this clue style has been used in published crosswords before, with the additional constraint that the removed letters are removed in order and only once. In the NYT Daily crossword, these are usually clued with "apt letters missing from ..." or "letters missing from ..., fittingly". If you do a bit of web searching for such clues, you should find many of them. A couple of real examples: Apt letters missing from "Te_h_ology r_view si_e" (CNET) Apt letters missing from "_tea_th_" (SLY) Note that there are many radically different crossword clue conventions around the world, e.g. U.S. style is often a definition but made more difficult with puns or misdirection (trying to get you to misinterpret the clue in a plausible way), British style is often based on a formalized set of cryptic crossword rules involving the spelling of the answer, many Continental European crosswords are often more direct tests of general knowledge without deceptive clues... The "apt letters missing from" style occurs in U.S. style crosswords but is considered rather odd (because it focuses attention on spelling, which is not a usual emphasis for U.S. crossword clues). For the NYT Daily I think it originated with their "Puns and Anagrams" crossword series, which sort of emulates Cryptic Crossword clues, but in a less formal (and less difficult) way.