the gasket would possibly create turbulence which can create a little more low end torque. but who really knows?

I'm curious to this myself, it might also be an effort to help with intake noise

my crx had a small metal blade in the intake, one screw held it in, i took it out and noticed no difference in intake noise or power lol

 

I removed and cleaned my TB as part of fuel injector maintenance and got the TRD "O" gasket from my local Toyota dealer for the princely sum of $13.21. The part is now PTR29-60030 and is listed as a direct replacement for PTR26-35041. I have no idea what a better online price might be, but I needed to get one immediately. Good hunting.

 

Interesting both my 3.4 have been running with no gaskets for years just a thin film of Toyota Fix it in place

There was a learning phase where the throttle bodies were removed quite often.

I did get the gaskets just never pulled things apart to install them.