to gusset or not

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I've been building dirt oval track modified chassis for a few years now. While we've been fortunate not to have any injuries or roll cage related failures, I'm of course always looking for ways to make things stronger / safer for the guys in the cars. Recently I was talking with another chassis builder who was looking over a chassis I had just picked up from powdercoating, and he commented on a couple of gussets I had placed between the a-pillar tubes and the halo of the roll cage. His opinion was that the extra heat from welding in the gussets caused more harm than good to the tubing. The tubing on this portion of the car is 1 3/4" x 0.095" DOM. His claim was that the added heat from welding in the gusset would create a bigger weak spot in the tubing, increasing the likelihood of the weld tearing out of the pipe at the edge of the heat affected zone in a hard wreck. I've seen various instances of 4130 tubing having issues at the heat affected zone, but can't think of any specific instances where I've witnessed this happening with DOM tubing.So, what are you all's thoughts on this type of situation? In my mind / experience, the gusset helps hold things together when things go bad, but, my opinion is by no means guaranteed to be correct just because I think one way or another. Sorry that this pic is a little blurry, but you can see one of the gussets in question in the front / top / left corner of the roll cage where the a-pillar post and halo (portion of cage over driver)  come together. Thanks for any input Attached Images