This is a repeat of one of my posts from 2009:
...n prior years I participated in search and rescue operations when I lived in Colorado and in California. I remember one call in particular that is relevant to this thread: a hiker suffered a broken ankle while exploring off-trail. Nothing life-threatening, but he couldn't hike down the mountain without help. The hiker had a good quality light equipped with a strobe function, and was able to alert a passing motorist (driving in the valley more than 5,000 feet lower in elevation) that somebody up on the mountain needed some sort of help. The motorist saw the strobe and was was alert enought to figure out what it meant, and responsible enough to contact local law enforcement. The SAR volunteer team was alerted and dispatched. It was already dark of course, but we knew there was a well-established trail nearby, and had confidence that the subject would be able to pinpoint his or her location with the light. We found him pretty quickly, thanks in part to the victim's flashlight. We were able to evacuate him to medical attention within four hours of receiving the call.
If not for the strobe that caught the motorist's attention, the injured hiker's rescue might have been delayed for two or more days, probably until Monday at the earliest, when the hiker would have failed to show up at his job. The hiker reported that his co-workers knew of his weekend plans, and his route, so I'm pretty sure he would have been found before he ran out of food and water. He would however have been in pain for at least three days, and without immediate medical attention, his ankle injury might have been much worse.
I vote to keep the strobe feature available. You can hide it all you want, but it does have value.