It’s totally uneccesary.. it’s just a piece of foam that actually don’t offer much protection anyway. I have the Supreme 2s pants which have a big belly flap, but i find it mostly in the way, and kinda restrict me in my skating, so i push it as far down as i can.
My 12 year old son went from Vapor x900 lite pants which also have a big flap to Tackla Expp55 pants which don’t have any flap at all and also have a much lower cut front than other pants on the market. He is much more mobile in the lower cut tackla pants. And he plays D with most blocked shots on the team. He says, there is tension in the abs when skating, so the padding for the lower abdomen is uneccesary