If you are not getting paid to ride your bike with all of the accompanying restrictions/requirements that it entails why would you remove either or both?
I have done a bit of online and LBS research and both sources appear to be in agreement that both items have the potential to serve a useful purpose.
Manufacturers continue to put them on the bikes they build.
What gives?
Is it simply a weird culture thing and a huge % of wannabe racers do it for no other reason than copying what the pros do? Or do most just do it because they think they are supposed to?
To each his own but that would be too akin to the Sunday morning high arc softball player using a $500 alloy bat while wearing eye black imo.
Or did everyone that does it simply eye up their bike one day and say "these 2 things are ugly" and remove them?
Lastly, do reflectors fall in the same category?