You can remove it many do, however there is a wide misunderstanding of it's purpose.
It is there to dampen critical driveline vibes caused by the driveshaft length. This has nothing to do with the gear ratio (other than vibes will occure at a lower speed if you install steeper gears) It is there to dampen first and second order harmonics of the drive shaft, these will occure to a lesser degree with an alloy (lighter) ds but may not be eliminated. I had horrible vibes after changing to 3.73's and alloy ds reinstalling the damper eliminated my vibes.
Dwayne