If you remove the water then these gasses have nothing to dissolve in and so can't exert their corrosive effects - you coatings will therefore last longer. As water is absorbed the gel turns from blue to pink - whereupon it is saturated. Sufficient silica gel is supplied to refill the tube twice so the cap will never be out of action. The colour of the gel can be viewed through the lens on the back of the dustcap, so you can quickly assess the condition of the air inside the OTA at a glance without removing it. I am working on a design to fit refractor tubes.
Fluorite elements are very sensitve to condensation.
Even if the glass elements are all hard coated, removing the water vapour will reduce the accumulation of stains and prolong the interval before cleaning is necessary. Aids to Collimating the LX SCT Simple replacement adjusting dial to replace the wrench. Seriously though, there must be many SCTs in current use with optical performance seriously undermined by poor collimation of the secondary mirror. Well get that wrench out because achieving good collimation is really easy. This is not a technical description of collimation, just a simple DIY method you can use.