fluid takes path of least resistance, blocking those ports forces the liquid to take the more difficult route (which also contain the mentioned hotspots).
If you are old like me and experienced working on the charade GTti engine - its headgasket looks similar to the regular charade, but has some ports elongated and some ports blocked, That was done due to the cylinder head design of the turbo engine on how water flows through the head.
If you install the regular gasket on the turbo engine you get intense hotspots in cyl 1 and 2 under boost. If you install the turbo DOHC gasket on the regular engine, you get uneven cooling and in most cases overcooling of cyl 3.
apologies!! to Mr Abbasi