I was curious in regards to a component such as a mosfets and if it is ever strategic to remove them from a board.
Let's say I was trying to upgrade a board by trimming off some of the dead weight, taking it from mid/low grade telecom into high grade telecom, granted If it was possible in this hypothetical scenario.
should I take the mosfets off? Considering they are basically just plastic and number two copper and don't really add any value to the board in this specific scenario(trying to trim said board to push it into a higher paying grade).
Considering this specific component only adds to dead weight, especially for a higher paying category, Such as high grade telecom.

Also a separate question. I have received some boards from a supplier at my church that actually works on alarm systems and the boards are beautiful.They are covered in a bunch of gold trimmings, and have a lot of ic chips, barely any junk. Are the higher end boards for alarm systems generally considered high grade telecom?
I mean, that is kind of what they are doing as an alarm system. But it seems like it could be a gray area, as it could also be high grade peripheral. This question may be unanswerable as it sits right now and if necessary, I'll post some pictures in response when I get home to my own thread.
But I was just curious if anybody had any experience with sending in these types of boards?
specifically that came from alarm systems or alarm panels, were they were graded as HGTC or high peripheral?

I was looking through my gallery and I just happened to have a picture of the back of one of these alarm boards.
I'm not sure this is really all that helpful to answer my second question. Some of these boards are reminiscent of hand radio boards that i've sent in before that recieved gradings of high grade telecom.They have the little metal casings over the small groupings of components like the "intrinsically safe" radios used in industrial settings where sparks are a concern due to the potential for explosions if there is ionized flammable solvents in the air. On these alarm boards I'm not sure what purpose the metal boxes serve, maybe to prevent the components receiving interference from other electronics.
Also, some boards look similar to boards that come out of older cellular phones that have the little pads for buttons that have those rich golds tracings.

Mosfets are one component that would actually add value, being Cu. Particular mosfets actually act like ICs sometimes with dies inside them but not considered an IC itself. Most Radio and sound equipment carry those kinds.

Components needing removal for upgrade would be like, electrolytic capacitors, transformers, ferrous materials, plastics and adhesives, larger bonding wires or simple voltage diodes/runners, ferrite blockers, basic resisters, epoxy caps, etcetera, etc.

Depending on what metal box you're talking about, it could be an oscillator or a vapor capture box. Vapor sensors are usually in metal boxes and/or round circular shapes close looking like batteries or a small speaker.

Most push button gold points are just flashings or foils but some can be thicker or actually have a bread layer of gold, inside , the PCB. It's pretty prevalent when you see the difference between the two. The PCB will have a heavy coating in and every hole or touch point.

Like always the best chances to identify or pick out questions is ask the forum for opinions. Remember to post those pictures so we can have an idea of the other one you mentioned.