diff --git a/pkg/cmd/roachtest/tests/mixed_version_schemachange.go b/pkg/cmd/roachtest/tests/mixed_version_schemachange.go
index f9697492a0b8..78ae7ed76326 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/roachtest/tests/mixed_version_schemachange.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/roachtest/tests/mixed_version_schemachange.go
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ func runSchemaChangeWorkloadStep(loadNode, maxOps, concurrency int) versionStep
 			// crashes, deadlocks, etc.
 			// TODO(spaskob): remove when https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/issues/47430
 			// is closed.
-			"--tolerate-errors=true",
+			//"--tolerate-errors=true",
 			fmt.Sprintf("--max-ops %d", maxOps),
 			fmt.Sprintf("--concurrency %d", concurrency),
 			fmt.Sprintf("{pgurl:1-%d}", u.c.Spec().NodeCount),
diff --git a/pkg/workload/schemachange/operation_generator.go b/pkg/workload/schemachange/operation_generator.go
index 93239f329d38..4a93a6b2d73d 100644
--- a/pkg/workload/schemachange/operation_generator.go
+++ b/pkg/workload/schemachange/operation_generator.go
@@ -2373,6 +2373,16 @@ func (og *operationGenerator) insertRow(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx) (stmt *o
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
+	// If we aren't on 22.2 then disable the insert plugin, since 21.X
+	// can have queries fail due to an optimizer bug.
+	skipInserts, err := isClusterVersionLessThan(ctx, tx, clusterversion.ByKey(clusterversion.Start22_2))
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	if skipInserts {
+		tableExists = false
+		tableName.SchemaName = "InvalidObjectName"
+	}
 	if !tableExists {
 		return makeOpStmtForSingleError(OpStmtDML,
 			fmt.Sprintf(
@@ -2488,7 +2498,6 @@ func (og *operationGenerator) insertRow(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx) (stmt *o
 	for _, row := range rows {
 		formattedRows = append(formattedRows, fmt.Sprintf("(%s)", strings.Join(row, ",")))
 	}
-
 	stmt.sql = fmt.Sprintf(
 		`INSERT INTO %s (%s) VALUES %s`,
 		tableName,