I think a lot of us (myself included!) would prefer not to disassemble the front of the turbo on the car, lol... but yes, that would be an option. Or, using a right-angle drill attachment.
Last night I removed all the vacuum transducers and switchover valves, which are mounted around the airbox. Prior to the wastegate swap, these controlled the vacuum-type wastegate, EGR valve, and air flapper valve (which would divert more exhaust gas into the intake tract, and block fresh air flow). I also replaced the 3-way splitter above the vac pump (1 in, 3 out) to the F-shaped fitting (1 in, 2 out), since there's no longer a need for a vac feed towards the airbox. The engine looks a LOT cleaner with all that junk removed. I'll take some photos and post them here.
The icing on the cake would be to physically remove the EGR and flapper valve mixer housing entirely. This is possible, but the factory solution requires using the Euro-spec turbo, crossover pipe, and cone-shaped connecting pipe. The Euro turbo is basically unobtanium at any reasonable price, so this is mostly just fantasy. The end result would look similar to the Euro 603 shown in the photo below. Another option is to remove the mixer housing and replace it with a section of intercooler hose, like Zeitgeist did on his new 2.5T, which works equally well.
