I would remove them just for their retarded looks. But I am also supporting the removal of jumphits, for the very same reason. I don't think it does a lot to balance, as it actually is not a question of balance, it's a question of game design. Heavy infantry having the task to kill the entire enemy team (like every player does) means, they also have to kill those archers, horse archers and cavalry, which is bad game design. Infantry isn't made for chasing down more mobile classes. Lower archer speed or better archer melee capabilities can never be the solution.
You can't use a Battle Tank to hunt down Helicopter Gunships. Yes, modern tanks have a slight chance of hitting a gunship with their main weapon, but the gunship needs to more or less allow it and the chances are tiny, so come on.
You could say that the AA-guns have to hunt down the helicopter, the helicopers hunt down the tanks and the tanks hunt down the AA-guns, but in the case of cRPG the helicopter (= archers) for example can engage all targets (including their counter, the AA-guns), while the tank (= infantry) can't (their counter, the gunships, are untouchable). Even if you scale down the effectivity of the helicopter (less missile damage, lower missile accuracy, etc.), the helicopter will ALWAYS have more possibilities to contribute to the team victory. I don't say they will contribute more, due to the eventual effect of the nerfs, but they will always have more options.
Change the game mode in a way that offers all classes the same amount of options to win a round. Because this entire debate is about options, not about effectivity.