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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
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Because Jojen is critical to Bran's understanding of his gifts and Meera is kinda the leader of the crew that keeps them alive past Winterfell's fall. Really, without Jojen, I don't see how Bran ever really learns how to control his ability to warg.
You could theoretically remove them, but they'd have to be replaced by some plot device whereby Bran learns more about his green dreams and develops a formidable traveling group. I guess you could just have Osha take on multiple roles, but really Bran's character development would suffer quite a bit without the Reeds, IMO. You're starting to stretch Osha's character pretty thin (suddenly she's not just a former wildling, but also a wildling with fairly mystical knowledge; where the hell did that come from?). Moreover, what do you do with Rickon? He leaves the group and goes beyond the wall with Osha; so who is Bran traveling with? That's when he learns the most about his skills and the history north of the wall. Pretty sure Hodor doesn't offer much help for him there...
And to tell you the truth, I don't think GRRM is done with them (though I think Bran stays in the cave, personally). They'd have to really screw with the books to make that stuff work without the Reeds - so why bother? Just put 'em in there.
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I think that they'll be in the show in some form, but they may not be "The Reeds". They could just as easily be introduced as wildlings of mountain folk that they run into after escaping Winterfell. I agree that they need some mechanism for Bran to develop his powers, and I can't imagine creating a new mechanism from scratch when there are already characters from the book that you could draw from.