Has anybody else removed the air injection nozzles from the exhaust ports?

While getting the new engine ready for installation on my 2009 RSTD, I decided to remove the air injection nozzles from the exhaust ports.

I had already removed the plumbing and all the rest of the hardware on the bike related to the air injection (mostly just to de clutter the engine installation).

While looking at the exhaust ports, I was shocked to see how far the injection nozzles protrude into the port and how much they would seem to block the exhaust flow.

Prior to seeing the inside of the ports, I intended to simply block the tubes off.

I used a slide hammer to pull the tubes out. With the tubes on the bench, I cut the top fitting part off and the lower tube part that protrudes into the port.

This left the hollow (about 1" long) section that had been pressed into the head. I welded both the top and bottom of those pieces so they could be used as plugs and drove them back into the cylinder heads.

Now the exhaust ports are unrestricted.

My question is:

The bike runs great, but I've never ridden a Royal Star before. Has anybody else done this and did they notice any difference in performance?

I can imagine removing that much visible restriction to the exhaust port must free up a few horsepower, I'm just wondering if it also would cause a drop in low end torque?