Stepside bed angle trim - remove or not?

[BaroneDog]

Wondering what the stepside folks do with the piece of stock bed angle trim when painting a truck; leave it or remove it and replace it? Mine looks like it is trapping rust behind it (see pic below) and seems like it should be removed, but I dread drilling out all the spot welds. It looks like LMC sells stainless replacement pieces, so probably will replace it with a nice new shiny piece, but wanted to see what other folks were doing first.

Also, do people usually paint over the bolts holding on the side fenders or install nice stainless hardware?

Thanks.