Even that doesn't reduce flow as much as people think it does, because all that's changed is the shape of pipe, not the diameter.
A squished pipe just looks counter intuitive and people replace it with a round one, but it's no different to squeezing the end of a garden hose. It creates a head of pressure and accelerates the water flow. I don't know if that was VW's intention, but it's certainly the physics behind it at least! I can't believe it was done for space as the K04 has a round pipe.