In response to receipt of a write input-output operation (IOP) including a logical address and a logical page of write data, control logic of a data storage system detects a presence of a data pattern in the logical page. In response to detecting the presence of the data pattern in the logical page of write data, the control logic records, in a logical-to-physical translation data structure, an association between the logical address and a data pattern identifier identifying the detected data pattern in the bulk storage media, refrains from writing the logical page of write data to the bulk storage media, and writes logical page metadata describing the logical page of write data to the bulk storage media. The logical page metadata includes at least the logical address and the data pattern identifier, such that contents of the logical-to-physical translation data structure can be recovered from the bulk storage media.