Is it the consensus here that a hood scoop never makes sense on any VX under any circumstance?

I mostly drive at elevations ranging from 5,000 to 13,000ft so it's possible my experience only pertains to high elevations. When I drove my WRX, performance of the 2.0 intercooled engine (before the turbo kicked in) was solid for an AWD heavy car. Maybe at high elevations, intercooling makes such a difference, as an already oxygen starved engine gets denser, oxygen richer, cool air. The few times I drove at lower elevations and before turbo lag, it seems like performance was strong as well. I'm a big fan of intercoolers. A performance mod that saves gas.

I think some of the problem is that some want a smooth hood while most want it with a scoop. There's others, that don't have a reason to upgrade as they only want performance mods. I believe that a hoodscoop is rice, unless it is functional. But I'm a big fan of a functional scoop.

Even if forced induction or engine compartment cooling doesn't warrant the upgrade, couldn't the scoop be made to cool an intercooler with the air intake in the fender? Someone could design a I/C system, either available for NA or SC engines, with a high-performance filter and housing, with a fender intake. I think then we would have a great reason to have a scoop.

So people just wanting the visual of a scoop would be happy, and those that want a performance mod would be happy as well. Intercoolers are fairly cheap, and I know we have some engineers or just really knowledgeable members here that could come up with a system. The other advantage of this mod is you wouldn't have to do it all at once, so it would be approachable for more people. If we timed it with income tax return time, it may help as well.

I'd be one that probably wouldn't bother with the upgrade, unless I could go all the way, and then I'd be super excited about it. So what do you say Jofotoz, do we revive this thread?