diff --git a/playbooks/roles/install-ansible/tasks/install_ansible_stub.yaml b/playbooks/roles/install-ansible/tasks/install_ansible_stub.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index 18723ff199..0000000000
--- a/playbooks/roles/install-ansible/tasks/install_ansible_stub.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-- name: Create build dir
-  tempfile:
-    state: directory
-    suffix: fake-ansible
-  register: _build_dir
-
-- name: Install fake setup.py
-  blockinfile:
-    create: yes
-    path: '{{ _build_dir.path }}/setup.py'
-    block: |
-      import setuptools
-
-      setuptools.setup(name="ansible",
-                 url="http://fake.com",
-                 maintainer="nobody@nobody.com",
-                 version="2.9.0",
-                 description="Fake ansible")
-
-- name: Install stub ansible
-  pip:
-    name: '{{ _build_dir.path }}'
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/install-ansible/tasks/main.yaml b/playbooks/roles/install-ansible/tasks/main.yaml
index 31119d5f74..6ba50a3868 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/install-ansible/tasks/main.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/install-ansible/tasks/main.yaml
@@ -20,28 +20,18 @@
     _install_ansible_state: latest
   when: install_ansible_version == 'latest'
 
-# Since Ansible 2.10 (~2020-08) the devel core package is split into
-# "ansible-base".  The PyPi the package "ansible" has everything in it
-# (the so called Ansible Community Distribution) but we specifically
-# want to test against devel.  However, ARA still depends on the
-# "ansible" package -- but we like ARA, because we can see the nested
-# runs with it.  To to keep ARA but avoid it bringing in either an old
-# version of Ansible, or the ACD, install a dummy package.
+# From Ansible 2.10 >= most of the fun stuff is in collections.  Clone
+# our required collections here.  Note this is only for our testing of
+# the devel branch; if we're using a release we use the Ansible
+# distribution package which bundles all this.
+#
+# TODO(ianw): we should add these to zuul and link the speculative
+# copies into ansible, then we could test changes in the collections!
 - name: Check if running devel branch
   set_fact:
     _install_ansible_from_devel: true
   when: '"github.com/ansible/ansible" in install_ansible_name'
 
-- name: Setup Ansible stub for post 2.10 compat
-  include_tasks: install_ansible_stub.yaml
-  when: _install_ansible_from_devel is defined
-
-# From Ansible 2.10 >= most of the fun stuff is in collections.  Clone
-# our required collections here.  Note, in production, we use ACD
-# which bundles most of this.
-#
-# TODO(ianw): we should add these to zuul and link the speculative
-# copies into ansible, then we could test changes in the collections!
 - name: Install Ansible collections
   include_tasks: install_ansible_collection.yaml
   when: _install_ansible_from_devel is defined