Removing all emissions control/vacuum systems: Good or bad idea?

These questions mostly come from a place of not knowing anything about cars that were ever made to smog.

I've looked through a few of the other emissions control/EGR threads people have put up and I'm starting to draw my own conclusions as to what needs to go. The problem I'm really facing is figuring out what still works and what doesn't. A lot of the vacuum lines are disconnected and wiring is just hanging around without any lear indication of where it's supposed to go.

Now that I know a thing or two more I have another question:
If I'm not running an EGR (my car came to me with a cover plate and no EGR) and I'm not sure what kind of choke I'm running at this point (Also car came with no choke. I'm using a basic automatic choke run from the mount on the manifold) what should I be keeping/discarding relating to either of those? I still have the standard electronic distributor /w vacuum advance (ECU is a tad drippy but not too serious) and I don't whats-what when it comes to the wiring for it all? Should I start from the ground up or post some pictures and get pointed in what ever direction I need to start heading?