Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 4090 MASTER 24G Unconventional Deshroud?

My coworker was tinkering with one of our PC's (testing some SDI converters in the PCI slots) and had to remove the GPU for access. Problem is, the PC case is a tight fit and he had some trouble slotting it back in again. Rather than ask for help, his solution was to remove the fan shroud to reduce the profile of the card (despite the fact that it fit in fine before).

I've seen plenty of deshroud mods where the stock fans are replaced with some Noctua fans (or similar) to improve noise and temps but couldn't find any info on whether it's safe to run the GPU with just the shroud itself removed. Does the shroud offer any benefits to the card for cooling, or is it purely aesthetics/RGB?

I'm back in the office tomorrow so will check the GPU temps. I'm just wondering whether I need to reattach the shroud and reseat the GPU too.