Are neutral plates good or bad? yes/no?

[ydeardorff]

Tonight after suffering a direct short in my 7 gap cell, I went back to check something out. A theory I was working on.

I have been told several times getting rid of neutral plates really reduces heat build up in the cell. Which makes sense, more resistance, more heat build up.
I remembered that titanium acted like aluminum in the anodes place. dead nothing for production. But the opposite was true in the cathodes place.

So I wondered how a titanium plate would respond as a neutral given that one side of it was a positive charge, and the other a negative.

Sure enough I was right only the cathode or negative side released any bubbles. The anodes side was quiet. However what I did notice also was the production was halved (per plate gap) even when I repeated this with nickel. More surface area wasn't equaling more production as I would have intuitively thought. The nickel did produce on both sides, but make the water all gunked up with blue junk.
But if only the cathode side of the plate is producing with titanium, then equally the anode must have to increase to catch up, yes? All things must be equal. Or so my math teacher says. LOL

So from my quick findings: if the production is essentially divided between plates when neutrals are used, and they increase heat build up, why do we use neutrals?

The introduction of neutral plates into a hyd generator (based on my findings) divides the production per plate gap, and increases the resistance of the cell in whole which is translated to heat build up. so if this is the case, why would we use them?

Do neutral plates add to stability of the cell, or do they increase start up time? does this require more amps to run making the cell less efficient?

Please explain....