I've been here before.

You need to find the content type that uses that specific status column (I've
seen it where there are three or four "status" columns.) When you edit or remove
that specific content type, the status column should either go away on its own,
or you should be able to delete it then.

It has been quite a while sicne I had to do this, so I may not be 100% accurate.

Several of those Fab 40 templates are "site definition templates". This means
they are defined in CAML and installed on the front-end file system.

If this is true for the template you are using, it becomes like trying to
deleted the 'Title' column or the 'Assigned To' column in a Task list.