dumb air breather question

[incoma]

I've had my truck running on and off for 13-14 years. I've always used the stock air intake in the pic below. I'm in a time crunch and drove the truck down to a local shop to have it properly tuned.

He said I wasn't getting enough air, and installed this silly air filter that makes the top of the cleaner sit off of the bottom of the cleaner. Now the truck's running well, but what's wrong with this picture?

What am I missing? Something tells me that my fairly stock 350 shouldn't need anything wacky like this... thoughts? Please tell me I'm not crazy.