Portuguese Jews are allergic to the daghesh hazaq. :) Not just in places where the vernacular doesn't have gemination, but even in Italy where it's an important feature of the language. In Livorno, the Jewish dialect in fact ignores it in many instances.So, is this a tradition to preserve? We do also traditionally appreciate the important of precision in reading Hebrew, and our own grammarians acknowledge the existence of the daghesh hazaq.