I'm fully with you on this my man, the other's will say they de-badge to make it look smoother and more aggresive, or to be individual (even though they all do it like sheep!). I'd say it looks to other people like you're ashamed of the marque you're driving, and with some of the Max-Power crew it is sometimes hard to tell what the original car was without badges due to all the bodykit's (that's mainly Saxo's etc, not Golf's on here before everyone starts!)
As for the single headlight's and no red piping I don't get this either, to start off with the single headlight grill was only fitted to non-GTI's, and everyone know's the red piping was the hallmark of the GTI. I don't get it why people would want there GTI to look like a 1.3 driver (grill wise)!!!
Confused as you mate, but it's a design classic, why ruin it?