On my old V70 I removed this strip, and didn't bother to replace it. It can only be cosmetic as my experience was that there were no adverse effects. The paintwork got ever so slightly damaged as I pulled out the old strip, so I simply bought a roll of pin-striping tape for £4 and positioned this along the edge of the hatch panel, hiding the damaged paint. The car was silver, as was the pin-stripe tape, not a perfect colour match, but it passed the 1 metre test!
Jack
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