Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

OK, this is going to be nit picky, but it is something that just looks dumb to me. I have seen some photos of nicely restored cars and on the smog cars, the ports on the intake manifold are connected with a piece of heater hose. Why? It looks dorky and out of place to me. Putting pipe plugs or just vacuum block off caps seems to be a much better solution.

Any comments as to why so many folks just stick a hose on those two fittings?