What is resource type linking? It is a way of establishing the "master representation" of a resource or data type amongst mutiple compatible ones.

Using this link an inventory user (human or automated) can say: these compatible types really are this one. I don’t want them to be treated as separate entities.

We cannot simply remove the types, because they originate on the feeds and feeds will likely send them "up" over and over again to make sure the server has the most up-to-date representation of the data the feeds would be sending. The server would therefore find itself repeatedly needing to link such newly uploaded resource types.

Do you have any other ideas how to represent this kind of stuff? Is it even needed?

See the "What is a resource type, anyway?" post for further context.