I agree Chris, I actually forgot to add that, I feel like it weights the bag down. You have a good idea about having a slit cut in the top ring, hummm I wonder how that could be done. If you ever come up with anything let me know. I would love to take them off.
I spoke to one cobbler who didn't have a metal cutter and said that it the ring cut it would uneven (not smooth and polished like the slit in the second smaller ring). I'm not sure if that would matter since it could be hidden under the leather tab. He said that another option would be to remove the two leather taps that the rings attach to (I guess remove the stitching).