Several methods have been tried to eliminate the droplets of condensed steam that hit and erode the last-stage blades of large steam turbines: heating the upstream stator blades, sucking the water into hollow stator blades increasing the gap between the last stator and the last rotor to allow the droplets to accelerate, etc. At what point does the benefit of having the last stage become not worth the effort of protecting the blades? Why not just leave off the last stage of the LP turbine?