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Anybody planning to buy a set of rear bake shields (4F0615611B & 4F0615612B) soon?
I'd save your money if I were you, a set I picked up this week are possibly the worst quality Audi part I've ever seen, the metal is so soft that you can dent them with finger pressure - its not far off being thick foil compared to the rather tatty and rusty ones on my on my car.
They're away with a mate for powder coating but they'll only be on my car long enough for me to make some better ones out of either stainless or carbon/kevlar using the old ones as patterns.

My passenger rear had been "repaired" with the bigger washer hack, started hearing clicking so had a feel around the discs when changing tyres and noticed back left was loose, repositioned it to try and keep it from touching the disc.

Within a week all 4 mounting screws had rusted to the point the disc had become dislodged, so I just pulled it out, I didn't fancy stripping the discs off to get at it.

Is there any major disadvantage to running without these plates?

Not major. The brake won't work quite so well in the rain but you'll probably never notice the difference. Shields are a combination of splash/gravel/dirt protection for the discs, thermal protection for suspension parts and airflow management.