@Alerte. I would never tell another user what to post or not, as long as it remain inside the parameters of the site about courtesy.
But, since you asked, i'll give you my very personal opinion.
We have a front page in the forum that drops posts out of sight everytime a new post is made. Sometimes the "hellos and goodbyes", though courteous, bump out from the spotlight topics with some sort of content or news. I had to disable the french language to avoid the "hellos and goodbyes" also posted in french and regain some view in the front page. This is a far as it goes with me regarding your question, but i won't call it an annoyance.
Maybe sometime latter Totem could put those pretty little green lights near the usernames, that indicate that an user is connected or not.
At the end, i have no real problem with the salutes. There's no *****. (;