I'm a bit skeptical, I'd probably see that there is something to the right and would have to scroll just to see whether it was non-essential or not.

If its a site I regularly visit that is not a problem though, but what is non-essential to you might be essential to me so I'd be happy if there were small duplicate links in the footer or something.

I guess it depends, but in general anything besides ads further than 1024 pixels to the right annoys me.