The parameters bool sync=true, bool read_only=false of mtr_t::start()
were added in
https://github.com/mysql/mysql-server/commit/eca5b0fc17a5bd6d4833d35a0d08c8549dd3b5ec
(MySQL 5.7.3).

The parameter read_only was never used anywhere.
The parameter sync was only copied around, and would be returned
by the unused function mtr_t::is_async().

We do not need this dead code in MariaDB.