I agree with the majority "if you don't need, don't use it";
however, for myself I am not following DIR all the way.
The shoulder pads to me, is not so useful UW, rather it's for on land. Again, it's a 100% correct if you follow the DIR and other experience users, but for myself, I added it because I do not like the feeling of the pressure on my shoulders esp when I came back up to the boat. I read about the postings from other users -- the material has to be chosen so that it won't get soaked. So I am using the standard harness plus two additional shoulder pads. I have chest strap attached at the pad stripe, but I never use it.