[one of the authors of the two studies] Absolutely spot on - there would likely be more issues if the cells were forced to develop from a single cell to a full blown organism. However, thinking of it as a smoke test, it can still be surprising that such large stretches of DNA are dispensable and the cells survive and propagate!
Thanks. It is surprising. I suppose to be more specific, it demonstrates how the genome is composable in the extreme, which makes sense from an evolutionary point of view.
