I have mine always off to save a bit of battery and because I find them annoying. I've had mine off since a few days after I got my s3 and will always have then off from now on
I can understand having them on for htc phones but with the note 2 there are only 2 buttons. If you csnt remember them then you shouldn't have the phone
It's not that you don't remember them... it's the wonder of seeing them appear 'out of nowhere' In any case, HTC's also have two buttons now and an 'useless' HTC logo (unless you root, then you can make the very top of the logo useful).