Remove duplicate sort hooks in 7.x?

For some reason we have ended up with rather duplicate functionality between this alter hook:

        // Allow other modules to add or remove sorts.
        drupal_alter('apachesolr_sort_links', $sort_links);

and the methods to add and remove sorts via the query object:

  $query->set_available_sort('comment_count', array('title' => t('Most comments'), 'default' => 'desc'));

  $query->remove_available_sort('sort_name');

Should we just remove the alter hook in 7.x? Is there a use case for having it in addition?