Plowing through the engine bay yanking and cutting and disabling stuff because "That's a pollution control, so I'ma git rid of it!" is a thoughtless and unreasonable thing to do. See here for info on what the various systems are and which ones are worth keeping vs. removing.
there was a small vacuum "box" on the firewall where one of the electrical ones is on the 74. I believe vacuum went through this box before it went to the distributor.
That's the OSAC valve, notorious for causing mushy driveability/hesitation. Bypass it (hose directly from the correct port on the carburetor to the distributor).
The 74 does not have vacuum advance on the distributor
It did originally -- perhaps someone dropped in a (much) later "Lean Burn" distributor. You definitely need vacuum advance for good driveability, performance, and fuel economy, so either swap the '73 distributor into the '74 engine, or get a new distributor from Old Car Parts Northwest as described in the HEI upgrade article.
