I wish there was a way to get rid of the buttresses....cuz they certainly don't add to the beauty of the structure.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think they're gorgeous, and I've seen them up close.
There is a structural reason for them.
There is no reinforcing steel in the walls of the cathedral, so when the roof (over 200 tons of lead placed on A-frame rafters) was installed on the structure it exerted a side load that would eventually cause the walls to bow outwards and eventually collapse.
The buttresses apply inward force to counteract the outward force of the roof on the walls.
The fear was that because of the fire and the subsequent collapse of the heavy roof, the buttresses would cause the walls to collapse inward. By the grace of God, that did not happen.