Hmmm, here my brief opinion:

I'm not a fanboy, and I say, keep the reforms.

Since I watched Gladiator, I was a big fan of the Romans. But with reading Tom Holland's Rubicon. The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic, this opinion changed, and it changed even more with playing EB. I'm just not that fan anymore, seeing what great civilizations, kingdoms, dynasties were annihilated by the glory-seeking juggernaut from the Tiber river.

So I'm even a bit anti-Roman, but I say let's keep the reforms in place. Why? Because of the same reason that Lorica segmentata won't be included: It wouldn't be historical to let the IRs out. The IRs are the logical consequence of the evolution of the Roman state from an italic power to a global superpower, with all it's internal struggles and the final change from a republic to despotism. The Roman res publica just couldn't function anymore, because the glory and power (basically all a republican Roman ever seeked) that could be achieved by a single person was so gigantic that the res publica was inevitably to collapse.

Bearing that in mind, we see that the collapse of the res publica is the consequence of the player reaching near the victory conditions. The victory conditions for the Romans are well known, they can be summarized "conquer the known world". So the Imperial reforms are not only logical, but also a reward for the player who achieved such and spent such a great amount of time.

So please keep the Imperial reforms.