Baloney.
Developing those plates required a lot of energy and if there is anything biology demonstrates it is that living organisms don't waste energy needlessly - its too expensive from a cost effective perspective.
Even rudimentary spurs at the rear of Booid snakes, the remnants of the pelvic girdle, serve a function - they "stimulate the female during courtship.
These guys should go back to the drawing board. If something exists, it exists for a reason - even if we haven't been able to figure it out definitively.
God doesn't place dice with the Universe" - Albert Einstein.
Well you just didn't read it carefully enough, without the plating how could a bird tell another bird of the same species from a stegosaur? It's all bloody obvious.