Yes, I just removed the fan part, that is: two screws the fan plug and nothing is irreversible. I dont have a nvme drive yet, I have to buy more things for this pc but later in time, not yet... anyway I believe that there is enough room there to fit one because those small fans are more or less in the same place where the 30 mm stock fan is, so I´m not reducing the available room for a nvme.
With the stock chipset fan I don´t think theres a possibility to use the black ridge witout modifiyng the chipset heatsink because there is interferience between the two. maybe milling a milimeter or two is enough but you will have to do something like that. Neither the black ridge or the chipset heatsink can move a tiny bit once they are put in their places.
As long as temperatures go, Normally My chipset sits at 62 degrees while working and according to gigabyte the stock fan starts working at 61º when set to silent mode in the bios, so I guess is not that bad, although not ideal. Right now I have my case open with a 120mm fan over the black ridge because yesterday I was overclocking a bit to try how it behaves and the chipset is at 51º which is quite an improvement. When I´m rendering the chipset temperatures lowers as the cpu fans ramp up and cool everything under them, so for me this solution is working just fine.
I have a kolink rocket case and cannot put anything over the black ridge which is a shame, but on that configuration you even wont need the 40 mm fans... at least without a nvme drive of course.