No, it does not help with bloom. It will only reduce the number of flowers you get. Each rhizome gets one flower stalk.

When the irises become crowded after two or three years, you should divide them after the bloom in June-August, throwing out the rhizomes that have bloomed and saving the young ones to replant.
Renee

Don't remove unless you want to limit the size of the clump.

These babies (also called "toes") are the new rhizomes and each will bloom, while their mother rhizome will wither away and die. Each baby has its own root system develop to sustain it. Removing one or three will not give more vigor to the others. If the soil is impoverished maybe less competition for nutrients could be an issue? Sounds like I'm contradicting myself!

Whoops - Renee and I were typing at the same time. I was pokey.

thanks for a quick response :)