Here's my solution. Programming is about getting it done. The simplest "fix" is to set a boolean flag, such as showMenuStuff to true or false. If it's true, then initialize dat & gui.dat, and do the gui.add lines; otherwise, don't. Hence, no GUI adjustments in the final product; but during development, you can adjust the 3D plane and colors as you see fit.

I think you've hit the nail right on the head. One thing you could do is write a conditional that only initializes Dat.gui based on which env you're currently running on such as dev or prod. Your way totally works though, and I agree, that's part of being a programmer (getting the stuff done). Nice work!