The main thing would be if it's an option for a user, there would also need to be an option for the admin to make it an option for the user, if that makes sense
The reason being. Admins may allow you to turn off the side columns, but they still have some content in those columns they'd like you to see, which is why the side columns always display on the portal page. This at least makes it so users will see the columns on their initial visit. So, in those cases, they wouldn't want the users to be able to skip the portal page.
