Hi,
"this would not impact compression/performance when they try to schedule the report as excel to email, etc., correct?"
That is correct. The compression on excel is only for the HTTP/HTTPS communication, and it has no impact on the scheduled job output to email as excel.
If you click on the successful instance on a timestamp with excel output format from a report's history in InfoView/BI Launch Pad, the transmission of this excel output will be compressed in HTTP/HTTPS communication.
Hope this helps,
Jin-Chong