Bridging Staples on plywood floor joints - leave or remove?

[whitelight]

We removed all of the carpeting on our 1996 34' front kitchen. We're preparing the plywood floor for the installation of commercial grade vinyl plank flooring.
The plywood (yes, thankful it's plywood!) is in great shape & the floor level. We only found one screw elevated above the floor, which we tightened down. All of the carpet pad staples have been removed.
The joints between the plywood sheets are surprisingly smooth. We will fill the individual screws to plywood level.
There are staples bridging each sheet of plywood (picture below) - What is the purpose of these staples? Were the staples used to tack the plywood together during construction until the flooring sheets was screwed in place? Can the staples be removed without dire consequences to the integrity of the floor? Do we leave in place, just drive down to floor level & overfill?

When we removed the side couch to lift the carpet, we found spent rivets & aluminum shavings & hole plugs left over from the manufacturing!