Question is whether the smart card reader built-in to the laptop connected through USB? Because those lines will disable the sharing between host and VM.
The Removable Devices menu only show USB devices.
Just an example, with the MacBook Pro 2016 and newer the Bluetooth module is no longer connected via USB but via UART and therefore the Bluetooth module does not show up anymore in Removable Device in VMware Fusion.
I don't know if there are other possible hardware connection for Smart Card readers. Assuming, that your laptop is running Windows you can check from Device Manager and view by connections and see whether the Smart Card reader is connected via USB. If it is Linux, you can probably check with lsusb -t and you may have to stop the Smartcard daemon (pcscd)
