I think this is bad advice, frankly. Such things are not unusual, non-tech suits always want blinkenlights and such, because they think it'll impress prospective customers. The stories I could tell, datacenters like circus acts.

The key is to keep the blinkencrap away from the real network/servers/patch panels, because those things have to actually work at all times, and it's your neck if it doesn't.

When you start adding extra switches and whatnot to the network just because they look and blink nice, you're actually adding points of failure into the network, stuff that can affect your network for whatever reason if something goes wrong.

I would advise either outright refusing to do it, or adding completely unconnected bling like rsync's comment lists -- expensive junk that serves no purpose except look flashy. But just never connect that crap to a production network.