Even though removing the palm leaves or getting yourself a more accurate sniper scope might give you a minor advantage in-game, they still fall under cosmetic modifications and are
allowed as stated in the
littlewhitey's VC-MP Server Rules. This is mostly because if there was a rule against these kind of changes, it would be nearly impossible for us to supervise this rule is being followed correctly.
To clarify, you are permitted to make any kind of modifications in the files
fonts.txd,
fronten1.txd,
fronten2.txd,
generic.txd,
hud.txd,
particle.txd as well as the files in the folder "txd" and any
texture files in gta3.img.
Editing these will only affect the appearance of your Vice City and will not alter the game behaviour.