Originally posted by klkitchens Nope. But there is a use there for those that might. Good point.
I know they come with it. Just never saw or had a use for it. Now I know there are some for some.
It will come in handy. For the plastic one came with my pentax SLRs they are very useful. Basically they designed some bumps on the cap, so it allows you to use finger to "PUSH" out the cap by giving more friction. These bumps are taller than the hot shoe itself. So basically when your gear is unprotect in the camera bag, the hot shoe will not use it's sharp edges to "scratch your gears". I had once didn't have cover, the hot shoe basically scrapped my lens barrel
I found it more as a functional piece than cosmetic really.