A carb has what's called a Venturi, the Venturi carries fuel to the path of the air going throug the carb. As air rushes past the Venturi fuel is drawn out and atomized. How much air, it's speed and direction as it goes past the Venturi determines how strong a signal there is and how the fuel is atomized.
HPI likely put these items there to manipulate the signal on the Venturi of an existing carb instead designing their own carb. Take those items out and you're going to be in no man's land figuring out the tune assuming you can get a tune on it at all. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't.
Personally I'd try to find a different air filter or tubing to attach to that assembly to reroute the filter. The tune will be less effected that way while still achieving the results you desire. In reading the Octane thread it seems tuning has its difficulties with the stock setup, removing that assembly will likely only increase those difficulties.