It depends on the ignition package.
A capacitive discharge system (like MSD 505, , 7 etc) or an indutive system that is designed to actively control the current (like the Pertronix mentioned above) will not need the resistor. Everything else was designed to use the resistor(s) for this function.

As Christopher Jacobs wrote in his book, for short WOT bursts (1/4 mile) one can try to get a little more out of the coil with a bypass switch. IIRC the purpose is to make up for the lack of time at high rpm for the coil to rebuild its field. Whether it is going to make a difference to performance will depend on what is happening in the combustion chamber.

Another variable is how the coil itself is internally designed. They can be designed to perform better at low rpms or at high rpms. It has to do with the windings. If you compare the specs for a Blaster 2 vs a stock coil you'll notice a differnce in windings.