That’s a pretty important purpose though. I have Etymotic earplugs that are similar and without the pull tab it would be difficult to remove. These go in deep and don’t have much beyond the ear insert, so you’d have to dig your fingers into your ear and pull it out against the seal.

My Etymotic one actually has significantly more after the flanges than the Sennheiser, so it’s probably even harder with those. I’ll pick up a pair in a couple weeks once I’m back in my country, so if you’re very curious I can try to remember to swing back around here. Reasonably certain it’s important though.