When entering invoices, our office managers will put in information for the approvers relating to the invoice. Having this information disappear after the invoice is approves means that we can't go back to it a month or two later if there are issues or questions. That information should become part of the history of the invoice and should be retained for reference.
I agree with Celia. Employees might leave the company and there would be no record of what they had included in expense detail/purpose. Information is missing for yearly audits. Valuable notes/explanations are currently lost after the invoice is "approved".