I keep seeing a lot of people crashing as they maybe inexperienced with the Mavic.

Thoughts on these? They would only used like stabilisers on a bike.

Completely unnecessary IMHO.  
More chances for it to get caught up in something like a tree perhaps.

The front arms could easily fold in when the guards touch an obstacle.
I wouldn't want to find out what would happen in that case.

Maybe the designer should think about connecting the front and rear guards to support each other.