I put it into gear and it dies.

The pcv valve is basically a controlled vacuum leak. You can (and should) use this as a tuning tool. The air being drawn in bypasses the carburetor butterflies, hence bypass air.
I disagree. The PCV should be used for what it is. I don't think adding it to for a tuning aid is the right thing to do. It should be included to perform its specific purpose and be a part of the entire system and just tune accordingly with it in place. Same thing you're saying essentially, but yall are makin it sound like it's used as a band aid, when that's not the case. Millions of cars ran just fine without PCV valves before they were mandated.