They actually make it so the heat cant escape as fast as possible from the engine bay. Its fine to remove, also, its reversible, you can always put them back if you chose to, three bolts each side. Again, I would cover the cable pull and wire on the left side with some heatshielding.
Why? aren't they exposed regardless? Unless something is very close to the headers, or directly touching the exhaust it's highly unlikely they are getting that hot.
They are behind the louvers, so when you remove them you are placing them in direct path of heat coming of the muffler and engine, cheap insurance I say to just add some silicone heat shielding and keep them cool.
weird, mine are in front of the louvers. Either way they probably get just as hot, especially sitting at idle