Not decorative. I carried a Fully rigged Hobie Pro Angler 14 filled with gear on mine in the past, and when I sold my Jeep I sold the bars to my friend and he carried 2 Hobie kayaks on the roof of his Subaru, and he carried a fully loaded roof top carry box made by Yakima from Virginia to Florida and back with no issues. The bars are rated to carry 150lbs and I've personally seen them do it without breaking a sweat. Plus they have over 13 thousand positive reviews on Amazon as well. And in reality, it's not really a good idea to carry more than 150 lbs on the roof anyways as it will negatively effect the handling of the vehicle.