It sticks out, it bugs me to no end ... is there a lower profile replacement or has anyone removed it completely? Thanks.

 

It bothered me the same way.

I just removed mine. I found a very nice 1" plastic snap-in plug at home depot, painted it silver, lightly samded it down, and snapped it in... sealed it with a tiny bit of silicon... looks great, hardly noticeable.

I might do it to the squirter as well.