I can say that the hound in that picture was originally bent considerably to port before I added the spacers. I assume it was from the shackle getting bound up somehow. I did not make any effort to straighten the hound when I installed the spacers - but it mostly straightened itself when sailing the first time with the spacers. Regardless, it's certainly advisable to remove everything periodically to check for stress cracking. Along with eliminating a spinnaker or spinnaker halyard pinch point, the spacers keep the shackle from "sawing" back and forth through tacks and helps to align the stress loads better.