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I de-flapped my '05 320d at 92k mostly because it was always in the back of my mind. Upon removing them all four were perfectly fine, no loose rivets, they were just a bit coked up. The only reason I removed them at the time was because I was doing an air filter change and EGR clean so it was a very little extra work to get the manifold off and blank them and for £35 in blanks it was cheap peace of mind.
I must admit knowing I don't have them is comforting and until you have the manifold off and look at them you have no way of knowing the condition of yours, and if you have the manifold off you may as well blank them!
PMW do hype the flap issue a bit on e90s, but given its a huge source of revenue for them it's understandable.
If I had an e46 I would change them without thinking as I have heard lots and lots of problems from e46 320d drivers, personally if I were you I wouldn't worry, but if you want peace of mind get it done. You may be better off sourcing blanks and getting a local mechanic to do it, although IRC PMW weren't too expensive all in.
It's a fairly achievable DIY job, it took me about 4 hours including an air filter change, oil separator swap (to a vortex type) and EGR clean.
At 40k you may not have had the turbo oil separator swapped (I can't remember what service it is at) and your '06 is likely to still be using a loo roll style, that definitely IS worth swapping to a vortex type as the old style gunk up and can cause the turbo to get a bit too warm.
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