This is what I and many other programmers have done (not the removal, but fake delays), because it improves user experience, actually:
1.When the user clicks a button that should take long in their mind (like uncompressing a zip file etc) but is actually fast, it might seem like something is wrong and it didn't work
2.When the user transitions between layouts of the application, if it loads everything too fast it will look too abrupt, a fake delay will be made here if a transition animation is not possible/doesn't fit
To be honest if you posted this 10 years ago it would still be more or less true lol