....plus it has the added benefit of making the stalk look bigger too!
but seriously... I had some that had insecticide spray damage and some that were just hanging in the dirt when I re-potted them... I trimmed them off and there was no ill effects... I think in some cases it helped a bit.
I trim the leaves on all of my plants when they are about to flower and produce fruit! I actually have 2 test plants where I removed all leave bigger than a half dollar and about 70% of the leaves overall. Plant doesn't have many leaves, but it replaced the removed leaves with about 100 peppers