Removing rubber from Pre-Assembled Paddles

Is the rubber on pre-assembled paddles meant to be taken off? I just spent two hours removing the Butterfly Stayer rubber off a Butterfly Stayer pre-assembled paddle! Now the paddle is over ten years old. And it was kept in a tool box for many years in a very low humidity climate. The red rubber was so hard and brittle that it shattered as I scraped it off! Of course, both top sheets separated from their respective sponge layers, so the majority of my time was spent scraping them off. Please tell me that it won't always be this difficult to replace the rubber on pre-assmbled paddles...