I would. This is because many people who see a cat outside without a collar and tags will at once decide it is either abandoned, or a stray. The idea of having the animal checked for a chip will not even occur to them at all.

To be honest, with some people the collar and tags don't help either -- when I adopted Yasha he had a collar and vet tag on him in the cage, and the idiots at Animal Control never bothered to phone the vet's office and ask after his records until I, standing at their desk with the collar in my hand, insisted on it. And years later, when he had a collar with his name and my phone number on it, he got 'adopted' for a week by someone who didn't bother to call either. I didn't see him until he did his normal out-the-door-under-your-feet escape, and came home to me again.

So I absolutely would not give up the collar and tags, just as a sign to people who are too lazy to check properly that the cat is cared about, and will be missed.