That's the way i understood it and the reason i voted for a server setting: the server doesn't force anything on (player can still manually disable it), it only forces something off.
Ideally, it even won't mess up your carefully configured interface (ie, logging off from the server will have you looking at your personal interface with no need to set it up again from scratch).
I bet it wouldn't be that hard to do either, because the information presented on those windows is separated into individual data streams.
The server doesn't need to know anything about how your windows are configured if it can simply over-ride and disable a specific data stream, then it will be disabled for all players regardless of how they set up their on-screen interface.
If for example it is set to over-ride the "secondary controls" (the blue text about flaps/gear/etc) information, then nothing will happen to your windows, they will just be blank because it's sending no data. So, no matter if i have my "secondary controls" information on a window all by its own on the right-hand side of the screen (like the default setting is) or merged into a window with other information, it will make no difference to the server at all. Think of it like "muting" on a radio: your radio is receiving fine at the same time as everyone else's radios of different brands and configurations, it's just not playing anything back.
The difference here is that we can potentially mute specific messages, so that for example if i have a text window for chat-bar, damage reports and server console, the server could mute my damage reports and i still get chat and console messages on my window without changing anything, then when i log off my damage reports are back
