Quaternion multiplication

I was studying this script from an example project and after comparing it to another tutorial, did some research on Quaternion multiplication. Now I am by no means a math whiz (only learning what I need to when necessary), But what I found interesting was this line right here

 direction.Normalize ();

I was reading this post http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/372371/multiply-quaternion-by-vector3-how-is-done.html and from what I could gather, Multiplying a quaternion by a vector3 or (Vector2) gives the same rotation. Because I thought the Horizontal and Vertical Input both have a magnitude of 1 anyways is using Vector3.normalize necessary?

 using UnityEngine;
 using System.Collections;
 
 /// <summary>
 /// Utilities to convert Joystiq input to worldspace ( based in main camera) 
 /// and to convert worldspace to Speed and Direction
 /// </summary>
 public class JoystickToWorld
 {    
     public static Vector3 ConvertJoystickToWorldSpace ()
     {        
             Vector3 direction;            
             float horizontal = Input.GetAxis ("Horizontal");
             float vertical = Input.GetAxis ("Vertical");        
             Vector3 stickDirection = new Vector3 (horizontal, 0, vertical);                                        
             direction = Camera.main.transform.rotation * stickDirection; // Converts joystick input in Worldspace coordinates //Quaterntion multiplication
             direction.y = 0; // Kill Z
             //direction.Normalize ();    <-------------
 
             return direction;
     }
 
     public static void ComputeSpeedDirection (Transform root, ref float speed, ref float direction)
     {
             Vector3 worldDirection = ConvertJoystickToWorldSpace ();
 
             speed = Mathf.Clamp (worldDirection.magnitude, 0, 1);
             if (speed > 0.01f) { // dead zone
                     Vector3 axis = Vector3.Cross (root.forward, worldDirection);
                     direction = Vector3.Angle (root.forward, worldDirection) / 180.0f * (axis.y < 0 ? -1 : 1);
             } else {
                     direction = 0.0f; 
             }
     }    
 }