For the Yay:
one, I hope not too stupid question: can I just rip these little brown thingamajigs off the august h-boards, or is it counterproductive? If yes, how do I do it best?
its doable, but its not really worth it IMO. youll save a few measly watts and maybe a bit of heat, at the cost of labor time and risk of screwing with a working system. Bitfury did it for both the above reasons, as well as to save the costs of parts/assembly for several dozen capacitors per board (likely a few dollars each pcb)
Bitfury has nothing to do with these boards.