Stern have a habit of placing 3 bumpers at top RHS for when ball enters the PF... it then does its thing bouncing the ball around a bit and often has some kind of controlled release, through a gate system etc. Sterns use of bumpers is such a non event and it always struck me that they didn't really know what to do with them as the randomness they provide to game play is lost.
I would say that Stern could quite easily do away with the bumper, but.. I would also say that the most boring games ive ever played have had no bumpers. After owning one, I swore an oath that I would never own a machine that didn't have bumpers again...

..Guess I need to go read the article now eh?