diff --git a/compaction.go b/compaction.go
index e44d3d6a30..f6409344af 100644
--- a/compaction.go
+++ b/compaction.go
@@ -3479,16 +3479,11 @@ func (d *DB) compactAndWrite(
 			writerOpts.Compression = block.FastestCompression
 		}
 		vSep := valueSeparation
-		switch spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.PolicyAdjustment {
-		case UseDefaultValueStorage:
-			// No change to value separation.
-		case NoValueSeparation:
+		if spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.DisableBlobSeparation {
 			vSep = valsep.NeverSeparateValues{}
-		case OverrideValueStorage:
-			// This span of keyspace is more tolerant of latency, so set a more
-			// aggressive value separation policy for this output.
+		} else if spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.ContainsOverrides() {
 			vSep.SetNextOutputConfig(valsep.ValueSeparationOutputConfig{
-				MinimumSize:                    spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.MinimumSize,
+				MinimumSize:                    spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.OverrideBlobSeparationMinimumSize,
 				DisableValueSeparationBySuffix: spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.DisableSeparationBySuffix,
 			})
 		}
diff --git a/compaction_test.go b/compaction_test.go
index 29f6aba21e..fef1ba1d89 100644
--- a/compaction_test.go
+++ b/compaction_test.go
@@ -1530,10 +1530,6 @@ func runCompactionTest(
 						if len(parts) != 1 {
 							td.Fatalf(t, "expected disable-separation-by-suffix with no value, got: %s", arg)
 						}
-						if policy.ValueStoragePolicy.PolicyAdjustment == NoValueSeparation {
-							td.Fatalf(t, "conflicting value storage policies for span: %s", line)
-						}
-						policy.ValueStoragePolicy.PolicyAdjustment = OverrideValueStorage
 						policy.ValueStoragePolicy.DisableSeparationBySuffix = true
 					case "val-sep-minimum-size":
 						if len(parts) != 2 {
@@ -1541,13 +1537,11 @@ func runCompactionTest(
 						}
 						size, err := strconv.ParseUint(parts[1], 10, 64)
 						if err != nil {
-							td.Fatalf(t, "parsing value-minimum-size: %s", err)
+							td.Fatalf(t, "parsing val-sep-minimum-size: %s", err)
 						}
-						policy.ValueStoragePolicy.MinimumSize = int(size)
+						policy.ValueStoragePolicy.OverrideBlobSeparationMinimumSize = int(size)
 						if size == 0 {
-							policy.ValueStoragePolicy.PolicyAdjustment = NoValueSeparation
-						} else if int(size) != d.opts.Experimental.ValueSeparationPolicy().MinimumSize {
-							policy.ValueStoragePolicy.PolicyAdjustment = OverrideValueStorage
+							policy.ValueStoragePolicy.DisableBlobSeparation = true
 						}
 					default:
 						td.Fatalf(t, "unknown span policy arg: %s", arg)
diff --git a/compaction_value_separation.go b/compaction_value_separation.go
index 8d44c5c58a..a8d614e3ea 100644
--- a/compaction_value_separation.go
+++ b/compaction_value_separation.go
@@ -137,11 +137,10 @@ func shouldWriteBlobFiles(
 					// blob files so values are stored according to the current policy.
 					return true, 0
 				}
-				switch spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.PolicyAdjustment {
-				case UseDefaultValueStorage:
-					// Use the global policy.
-				case OverrideValueStorage:
-					expectedMinSize = spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.MinimumSize
+				if spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.DisableBlobSeparation {
+					expectedMinSize = 0
+				} else if spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.ContainsOverrides() {
+					expectedMinSize = spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.OverrideBlobSeparationMinimumSize
 					if expectedMinSize == 0 {
 						// A 0 minimum value size on the span policy indicates the field
 						// was unset, but other parts of value separation are being
@@ -149,8 +148,6 @@ func shouldWriteBlobFiles(
 						expectedMinSize = policy.MinimumSize
 					}
 					expectedValSepBySuffixDisabled = spanPolicy.ValueStoragePolicy.DisableSeparationBySuffix
-				case NoValueSeparation:
-					expectedMinSize = 0
 				}
 			}
 
diff --git a/options.go b/options.go
index fc7ff0c692..a24ffcea72 100644
--- a/options.go
+++ b/options.go
@@ -1297,24 +1297,19 @@ func (p SpanPolicy) String() string {
 	if p.ValueStoragePolicy.DisableSeparationBySuffix {
 		sb.WriteString("disable-value-separation-by-suffix,")
 	}
-	switch p.ValueStoragePolicy.PolicyAdjustment {
-	case NoValueSeparation:
-		sb.WriteString("no-value-separation,")
-	case OverrideValueStorage:
-		sb.WriteString("override,")
+	if p.ValueStoragePolicy.DisableBlobSeparation {
+		sb.WriteString("no-blob-value-separation,")
+	}
+	if p.ValueStoragePolicy.OverrideBlobSeparationMinimumSize > 0 {
+		sb.WriteString("override-value-separation-min-size")
 	}
 	return strings.TrimSuffix(sb.String(), ",")
 }
 
 // ValueStoragePolicyAdjustment is used to determine where to store the values for
-// KVs. If the PolicyAdjustment specified is OverrideValueStorage, the remaining fields
-// are used to override the global configuration for value separation.
+// KVs, overriding global policies. Values can be configured to be stored in-place,
+// in value blocks, or in blob files.
 type ValueStoragePolicyAdjustment struct {
-	// PolicyAdjustment specifies the policy adjustment to apply.
-	PolicyAdjustment ValueStoragePolicyAdjustmentType
-
-	// Remaining fields are ignored, unless the PolicyAdjustment is OverrideValueStorage.
-
 	// DisableSeparationBySuffix disables discriminating KVs depending on
 	// suffix.
 	//
@@ -1322,45 +1317,43 @@ type ValueStoragePolicyAdjustment struct {
 	// optimize access to the KV with the smallest suffix. This is useful for MVCC
 	// keys (where the smallest suffix is the latest version), but should be
 	// disabled for keys where the suffix does not correspond to a version.
+	// See sstable.IsLikelyMVCCGarbage for the exact criteria we use to
+	// determine whether a value is likely MVCC garbage.
+	//
+	// If separation by suffix is enabled, KVs with older suffix values will be
+	// written according to the following rules:
+	// - If the value is empty, no separation is performed.
+	// - If blob separation is enabled the value will be separated into a blob
+	// file even if its size is smaller than the minimum value size.
+	// - If blob separation is disabled, the value will be written to a value
+	// block within the sstable.
 	DisableSeparationBySuffix bool
-	// MinimumSize is the minimum size of the value.
-	MinimumSize int
-}
 
-// ValueStoragePolicyAdjustmentType is a hint used to determine where to store the
-// values for KVs.
-type ValueStoragePolicyAdjustmentType uint8
+	// DisableBlobSeparation disables separating values into blob files.
+	DisableBlobSeparation bool
 
-const (
-	// UseDefaultValueStorage is the default value; Pebble will respect global
-	// configuration for value separation.
-	UseDefaultValueStorage ValueStoragePolicyAdjustmentType = iota
-
-	// NoValueSeparation indicates Pebble should prefer storing values
-	// in-place.
-	NoValueSeparation
-
-	// OverrideValueStorage indicates that value separation thresholds (see
-	// valsep.ValueSeparationOutputConfig) for this key range are being
-	// overridden from a SpanPolicy. If the global Options enable value
-	// separation, Pebble will separate values under the OverrideValueStorage
-	// policy even if they do not meet the minimum size threshold of the
-	// global Options' ValueSeparationPolicy.
-	OverrideValueStorage
-)
+	// OverrideBlobSeparationMinimumSize overrides the minimum size required
+	// for value separation into a blob file. Note that value separation must
+	// be enabled globally for this to take effect.
+	OverrideBlobSeparationMinimumSize int
+}
+
+func (vsp *ValueStoragePolicyAdjustment) ContainsOverrides() bool {
+	return vsp.OverrideBlobSeparationMinimumSize > 0 || vsp.DisableSeparationBySuffix
+}
 
 // ValueStorageLatencyTolerant is the suggested ValueStoragePolicyAdjustment
 // to use for key ranges that can tolerate higher value retrieval
 // latency.
 var ValueStorageLatencyTolerant = ValueStoragePolicyAdjustment{
-	PolicyAdjustment: OverrideValueStorage,
-	MinimumSize:      10,
+	OverrideBlobSeparationMinimumSize: 10,
 }
 
 // ValueStorageLowReadLatency is the suggested ValueStoragePolicyAdjustment
 // to use for key ranges that require low value retrieval latency.
 var ValueStorageLowReadLatency = ValueStoragePolicyAdjustment{
-	PolicyAdjustment: NoValueSeparation,
+	DisableBlobSeparation:     true,
+	DisableSeparationBySuffix: true,
 }
 
 // SpanPolicyFunc is used to determine the SpanPolicy for a key region.
diff --git a/sstable/properties.go b/sstable/properties.go
index 30a86616c2..6b72729562 100644
--- a/sstable/properties.go
+++ b/sstable/properties.go
@@ -125,8 +125,9 @@ type Properties struct {
 	// The minimum size a value must be to be separated into a blob file during writing.
 	ValueSeparationMinSize uint64 `prop:"pebble.value-separation.min-size"`
 	// ValueSeparationBySuffixDisabled indicates if special value separation rules were
-	// applied based on the KV suffix when writing. Pebble attempts to optimize writing of
-	// MVCC garbage values into blob files, which are recognized by the key suffix.
+	// applied based on the KV suffix when writing blob files. Pebble attempts to optimize
+	// separating MVCC garbage, which are recognized by the key suffix. Note that this
+	// value corresponds only for blob file writing and not value blocks.
 	ValueSeparationBySuffixDisabled bool `prop:"pebble.value-separation.by-suffix.disabled"`
 	// User collected properties. Currently, we only use them to store block
 	// properties aggregated at the table level.
diff --git a/testdata/compaction/mvcc_garbage_blob b/testdata/compaction/mvcc_garbage_blob
index 4603da7969..6355c4b7e4 100644
--- a/testdata/compaction/mvcc_garbage_blob
+++ b/testdata/compaction/mvcc_garbage_blob
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ flush-log
 
 # Another test with the same value separation config, but this time we set a span
 # policy for the span y-zz that disables value separation by suffix. This should
-# prevent MVCC garbage from being written to blob files.
+# prevent MVCC garbage from being separeted (both into blob files and value blocks).
 
 define value-separation=(enabled, min-size=5, max-ref-depth=3, garbage-ratios=1.0:1.0)
 ----
@@ -127,3 +127,99 @@ pebble.compression_stats: None:234
 pebble.value-separation.min-size: 5
 pebble.value-separation.by-suffix.disabled: true
 obsolete-key: hex:00
+
+define value-separation=(enabled, min-size=5, max-ref-depth=3, garbage-ratios=1.0:1.0)
+----
+
+set-span-policies
+a,c val-sep-minimum-size=0
+----
+
+
+batch
+set a@2 a2
+set b@5 b5
+del b@4
+set b@3 bat3
+set b@2 bat2
+del b@1
+set b@1 bat1
+set b@0 bat0
+----
+
+# Although we've disabled value separation into blob files, writing to 
+# value blocks should still be enabled.
+flush
+----
+L0.0:
+  000005:[a@2#10,SET-b@0#17,SET] seqnums:[10-17] points:[a@2#10,SET-b@0#17,SET] size:880
+
+sstable-properties file=000005
+----
+rocksdb.num.entries: 7
+rocksdb.raw.key.size: 77
+rocksdb.raw.value.size: 20
+pebble.raw.point-tombstone.key.size: 3
+rocksdb.deleted.keys: 1
+rocksdb.num.range-deletions: 0
+pebble.value-blocks.size: 25
+rocksdb.num.data.blocks: 1
+rocksdb.comparator: pebble.internal.testkeys
+rocksdb.data.size: 175
+rocksdb.filter.size: 0
+rocksdb.index.size: 36
+rocksdb.block.based.table.index.type: 0
+pebble.colblk.schema: DefaultKeySchema(pebble.internal.testkeys,16)
+rocksdb.merge.operator: pebble.concatenate
+rocksdb.merge.operands: 0
+pebble.num.value-blocks: 1
+pebble.num.values.in.value-blocks: 3
+rocksdb.property.collectors: [obsolete-key]
+rocksdb.compression: Snappy
+pebble.compression_stats: None:221
+obsolete-key: hex:00
+
+batch
+set a@2 a2
+set b@5 b5
+del b@4
+set b@3 bat3
+set b@2 bat2
+del b@1
+set b@1 bat1
+set b@0 bat0
+----
+
+# Disabling value separation by suffix should also disable writing to value blocks.
+set-span-policies
+a,c val-sep-minimum-size=0 disable-separation-by-suffix
+----
+
+flush
+----
+L0.1:
+  000007:[a@2#18,SET-b@0#25,SET] seqnums:[18-25] points:[a@2#18,SET-b@0#25,SET] size:770
+L0.0:
+  000005:[a@2#10,SET-b@0#17,SET] seqnums:[10-17] points:[a@2#10,SET-b@0#17,SET] size:880
+
+sstable-properties file=000007
+----
+rocksdb.num.entries: 7
+rocksdb.raw.key.size: 77
+rocksdb.raw.value.size: 20
+pebble.raw.point-tombstone.key.size: 3
+rocksdb.deleted.keys: 1
+rocksdb.num.range-deletions: 0
+rocksdb.num.data.blocks: 1
+rocksdb.comparator: pebble.internal.testkeys
+rocksdb.data.size: 157
+rocksdb.filter.size: 0
+rocksdb.index.size: 36
+rocksdb.block.based.table.index.type: 0
+pebble.colblk.schema: DefaultKeySchema(pebble.internal.testkeys,16)
+rocksdb.merge.operator: pebble.concatenate
+rocksdb.merge.operands: 0
+rocksdb.property.collectors: [obsolete-key]
+rocksdb.compression: Snappy
+pebble.compression_stats: None:188
+obsolete-key: hex:00
diff --git a/testdata/static_span_policy_func b/testdata/static_span_policy_func
index aa46a12f04..a11939fc13 100644
--- a/testdata/static_span_policy_func
+++ b/testdata/static_span_policy_func
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ a b c d e f g
 a ->  until d
 b ->  until d
 c ->  until d
-d -> no-value-separation until f
-e -> no-value-separation until f
+d -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until f
+e -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until f
 f -> none
 g -> none
 
@@ -17,11 +17,11 @@ g -> none
 test a-z:lowlatency
 a b c d e z
 ----
-a -> no-value-separation until z
-b -> no-value-separation until z
-c -> no-value-separation until z
-d -> no-value-separation until z
-e -> no-value-separation until z
+a -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until z
+b -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until z
+c -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until z
+d -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until z
+e -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until z
 z -> none
 
 # Abutting policies.
@@ -30,12 +30,12 @@ test b-d:lowlatency d-f:latencytolerant f-h:lowlatency
 a b c d e f g h i z
 ----
 a ->  until b
-b -> no-value-separation until d
-c -> no-value-separation until d
-d -> override until f
-e -> override until f
-f -> no-value-separation until h
-g -> no-value-separation until h
+b -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until d
+c -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until d
+d -> override-value-separation-min-size until f
+e -> override-value-separation-min-size until f
+f -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until h
+g -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until h
 h -> none
 i -> none
 z -> none
@@ -46,14 +46,14 @@ test b-d:lowlatency h-j:latencytolerant
 a b c d e f g h i j k l
 ----
 a ->  until b
-b -> no-value-separation until d
-c -> no-value-separation until d
+b -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until d
+c -> disable-value-separation-by-suffix,no-blob-value-separation until d
 d ->  until h
 e ->  until h
 f ->  until h
 g ->  until h
-h -> override until j
-i -> override until j
+h -> override-value-separation-min-size until j
+i -> override-value-separation-min-size until j
 j -> none
 k -> none
 l -> none
diff --git a/valsep/value_separator.go b/valsep/value_separator.go
index 2e0ed95744..b33242002c 100644
--- a/valsep/value_separator.go
+++ b/valsep/value_separator.go
@@ -163,8 +163,7 @@ func NewWriteNewBlobFiles(
 // SetNextOutputConfig implements the ValueSeparation interface.
 func (vs *ValueSeparator) SetNextOutputConfig(config ValueSeparationOutputConfig) {
 	if config.MinimumSize == 0 {
-		// This indicates that MinimumSize was unset, so fall back
-		// to the global minimum size.
+		// No override, so fall back to the global minimum size.
 		config.MinimumSize = vs.globalConfig.MinimumSize
 	}
 	vs.currentConfig = config