I feel the same way... there really wasn't a point in making them optional, or even something that required a button press. Especially since they usually occur when entering a new screen. It would be easy enough to fade to the other scene without it feeling weird if it was done on screen changes.

I was confused as to why it was presented as such an amazing new feature.

I guess maybe if someone is going for a speed run, they can skip them all? Other than that, I really don't see why anyone would skip them and why they couldn't be mandatory.