Aerodynamic appendages arrived on MotoGP machines looking like a cosmetic addition and turned out to be one of the more consequential technical shifts the class has been through. They did not make the bikes dramatically faster in a straight line. They changed which physical limits the rider was operating against, and once those limits moved, the way a lap gets ridden moved with them.
The reason the change was so significant is that a motorcycle has almost none of the aerodynamic tools a car has, and the ones it does have behave differently the moment the machine leans. Understanding why makes it clear what the wings were actually recruited to fix.
