Many years ago i was curious and left a few on to over winter in garage on various types of fig plants and when spring warm up came they did nothing.
But thats in our cold area of Illinois .
Martin

It's generally recommended to remove them because they will just rot on the tree and maybe cause issues.

I was wondering what you guys would say. I have trees that never go dormant here in Southern California, but they do slow during winter. Some have figs, and when growth kicks in, those figs get plumper and eventually ripen. But those trees kept their leaves through the winter, so it's a different circumstance.