If you mean the “R” and “W” buttons, they are actually for reading automation and writing automation, respectively. The record button is below the “R”.
As far as I know, you can’t hide them. Rather, when mixing, those would what you’d be using if, for example, you want to write automation by moving controls (e.g. the fader), tweaking plugin parameters, etc. Once you’ve written automation the “R” button should come on automatically, but, you can click it to bypass it if you don’t want automation to play back for whatever reason. Of course, you can also write automation manually in the project/arranger view, but sometimes it’s more convenient to just record it by moving controls in real time while playing a project back.
