[07DCwhiteSR5]

pretty much a last line of defense. tons of different things can happen. a paperfilter could come apart. it could fail to seal properly. u could have an accident and crack the intake tube or housing and debris could get sucked in past it until u turned the truck off. the truck can be running while being worked on etc w/o the housing in place. pretty much keeps the possibilty of stuff sucking/dropping/crawling in there from happening and its not going to make any difference in airflow or anything but if u wanna remove it, go for it. its ur truck not mine.