Python can run scripts in optimized mode (python -O) which turns off debugs, removes assert statements, and IIRC it also removes docstrings.
However, I have not seen it used. Is python -O actually used? If so, what for?
It saves a small amount of memory, and a small amount of disk space if you distribute any archive form containing only the .pyo files. (If you use assert a lot, and perhaps with complicated conditions, the savings can be not trivial and can extend to running time too).
So, it's definitely not useless -- and of course it's being used (if you deploy a Python-coded server program to a huge number N of server machines, why ever would you want to waste N * X bytes to keep docstrings which nobody, ever, would anyway be able to access?!). Of course it would be better if it saved even more, but, hey -- waste not, want not!-)
So it's pretty much a no-brainer to keep this functionality (which is in any case trivially simple to provide, you know;-) in Python 3 -- why add even "epsilon" to the latter's adoption difficulties?-)