being that my van is now 31 years old, and I no longer am required by my state, to have annual inspections, should the EGR be bad, DO I really need to have the EGR attached? or could I remove it and engine be just fine? And I am referring to physically removing it from the throttle body, and placing a steel plate with gasket, over the opening on the throttle body.
and the engine still run good?

 

If you have your sights set on removing it, just disconnect and plug the vacuum line to it. Myself, I wouldn't. It's function is to lower NOX emissions by cooling the combustion chambers. Your engine would have a greater tendency to ping without it. There's nothing to gain by removing it and they rarely go bad. I only seen one in 30 years and it had a hole burned through the pintle..