It may be a "fact" that you have not read about something, but that doesn't necessarily form a good basis for drawing conclusions. I can tell you that, when my check valve came apart, the shrapnel would sometimes block the vacuum pump inlet and I would loose essentially all vacuum. The brake booster would stop working and I had to shut the engine down manually. Then I would hit a pothole and the vacuum (and brake boost) would return to normal. And then the process would repeat until I diagnosed the problem and removed the shrapnel.

You might also note that the title of the discussion that I linked earlier was "Intermittent Vacuum Problems." (It is also worth noting that, in that discussion, you agreed with my recommendation to remove the shrapnel.)

Bottom line: if the possibility of sudden and unexpected loss of brake boost is not a problem for you, go ahead and take the easy road and leave the shrapnel behind.

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When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.