I’m a dork about numbers and history, I wouldn’t want to shave mine off either but, Don has a good point. If your machine shop can square the deck and save the numbers, go that route
Also, Chevrolet left a ton of meat in those 817 heads to make a ton of improvement under the valves, exhaust especially, the ‘short side’ under the intakes, and gasket match. You’ll have 20+ hours into em easy, but there’s no doubt it’ll help. Especially with that cam, a good intake manifold and headers, you’ll nudge 400hp for sure. Even with stock stroke and mild compression ratio 9.5-10:1.