gen 3.5 - ring inside headlight housing

I was changing out my bulbs for my lowbeams the other day and i noticed a little cyliner thing inside the headlight housing around where the bulb plugs in. looking in from the front, it looks like its just screwed in there. seems like they restrict the light to me. it looks like they're only in the lowbeam sections. would removing those cylinder things around the bulb give me better lighting? better as in brighter, but not glaring and still street legal. I really don't wanna bake my housing just to take those out and find out the results suck...

its a 95 btw...