This debate is almost as good as the one regarding why the B-52 crashed.
I honestly believe that any of us who have purchased the Pitts find ourselves instantly liking the airplane and wanting to take great pride in the assembly. It really is a nice model out of the box. For many of us, building one from scratch that looks anywhere as good would be a real challenge.
During assembly we look for ways to personalize the assembly process thinking any modification we do will make for a better end product. Oh, you can always over do it with epoxy, strength reinforcements, redundancy, but here again it really boils down to taking pride in your project and doing what you feel makes your plane special over others. If someone wants to detail the cockpit, add vinyl decals, modify flying wires or leave all this stuff off then whats the harm? What really matters is what you feel will make you happy with the end product and more confident when flying it. Let's just not over do it and end up with a brick p@@p house that flies like a pig.
When putting a gas engine on this plane it doesn't take much to end up on the heavy side. Mine weighs between 17-18 lbs., which is about as heavy as you would want and heavier than I would have preferred. Like I said in an earlier post, when you add a full take of fuel and smoke oil it's not at all friendly on a DS. Adding wires won't add a noticeable weight difference, or provide much if any additional support. A cabbane or interplane strut bracket failure will most likely occur as a result of vibration. If this happen I would think it's doubtful that any flying wire modification would add enough support to hold the wing on. Regardless of weight, if you lose the top wing this bird is coming down hard. But, wires do add an nice scale appearance which is why GP provided them. Frankly, I don't like having to mess with wires when assembling at the field. But, if anyone feels that this addition makes your end product better over another then go for it.
Can't wait to see the in flight pictures of the new birds.