Empty steel rehaut makes the watch feel cheap, lazy, and low-effort
This mostly applies to dive watches and sports watches, but if I can see a noticeable steel rehaut between the glass and the dial, it makes the watch look cheap.
Alignment QC issues aside, my Seiko divers with actual chapter rings look and feel a lot more thought out than some of my swiss divers without any markings or chapter rings. Heck, I had a cheapo Aliexpress Addiesdive watch that just had an unmarked but dial-color-matched black "chapter ring" covering the rehaut and even THAT looked better than nothing.
If a dive watch is going to ask for premium price, there's no reason to NOT have a properly placed chapter ring to cover that metal wall - unless they are intentionally homaging certain vintage models.
Please feel free to disagree.