You are correct, it does not interfere. And I definitely am not interested in seeing it.

*Disclaimer* No offense meant by the following statements... I am just providing feedback from my point of view.
I don't feel like this change provides any value, and appears to be out of place. Using an analogy, it is like an email box which stores emails that I've already read, and will never read again, but cannot delete, and am forced to look at every time I open up my email box. But in this case, I am not even choosing to open up my email box...I am only looking for unread posts in threads I am subscribed to.