MBJ
Without doing any french bashing here( In fear of banishment to New Zealand.) I think you will find that at least the A-Star is allowed to fly into a certain amount of Snow. Therefore instead of two things to concentrate on (one being why the hell should you fly a helicopter into Snow) and (second remembering to turn on the Pitot Heat ) They just say leave it on. And your right it also cleans up the Light Panel.....
Lights on in daytime is a Male thing. It makes the helicopter stand out a bit more with all those flashes, girls like that. And they dont have to remember to turn them on at night, thus no requirement to know official sunset OR sunrise.
We now have Pulse Lights, another extension for visibility. I just cant wait to turn my Pulse Lights on before takeoff.
Im just having too much fun flying.