In my opinion, regardless of how you feel about the way gratuities are handled on cruise lines, if you remove gratuities, you’re taking away well earned compensation from those crew members working behind the scenes who may have otherwise received part of the daily gratuity rate.
If you can afford a cruise these days, you can afford to pay gratuities and you should not remove them. Opting out of gratuities is not a way to boycott service charges and save money on your cruise. While many passengers would prefer gratuities be included in the cruise fare, that’s not the way it works for most cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean.