If I notice a difference, I'm not above admitting it ;-)
That's what the real men say on the subject!
My opinion is that not everyone needs a stinger, still some do need it, so it's better to have it as an easy removale-reinstallable option. Most smokers probably just don't notice the difference, but some of those with more sensitive mouth membranes do. The stinger doesn't filter or dry the smoke or alter flavours in any way, but what it does is slightly reducing the temperature of the smoke stream. And for some that could be important and desirable.
The stinger does have a disadvantage: it may condensate vapour into liquid drops, which are then sucked into the airway and make the pipe to gurgle with no option to run a pipe cleaner through. Cool and slow smoking (and also installing the stinger so that the groove looks not up or down but sideways) eliminates this nuisance. Smoking cool however is another art to master, so maybe that's why so much hate towards the innocuous thingy from the side of the "advanced n00bs"
