Im not saying they are essential for a bodybuilding point of view, of course doing heavy deadlifts while smashing large quantities of anabolic steroids will cause significant hypertrophy in the muscles associated with a large blocky waist, although it pales in comparison to the GH gut of alot of top bodybuilders.
Drugs aside however, heavy deadlifting and squatting do not thicken the waist or destroy the V-taper, whilst you may not have the smallest waist you could achieve like the classic bodybuilders Darkoz and Silverback jack off too, heavy deadlifting doesnt cause the waist to somehow become massive and chunky.
Just have a look at our resident world champ Scott, and other natty top level bodybuilders/powerlifters like nathan wallace, and my mate boyd buffier (placed second to nathan this year).