Another smog thread

[slomotion]

I'm sure several of you are tired of seeing "smog threads", but I've searched these forums, Youtube, and a couple of other sites for some definitive answers and what I'm reading is "just take off the EGR, put a block-off plate on, and pull any associated stuff," or "pull the smog air pump and put plugs in the exhaust manifolds." Simple right?
Well, I'm a slow learner and apparently need someone to hold my hand a little longer
I have an '81 305 with low mileage, but a lot of the hoses are old, brittle, and leaking vacuum. My thought is if they're not up to task how do I know the diaphragms in the system are good? Our state inspections are safety related more than the old "sniffers", so rather than "restore" a system that wasn't exactly engine friendly, I'd like to take all that stuff off.
I'd like to see a carburetor, distributor, PCV, and a vacuum hose from the intake to the distributor vacuum port when I look at the top of the engine.
There are four wires that go into the back of the dist., and the "Electronic Spark" is alive and well, but with the dist. having a vacuum hook up does that mean there's no computer?
I've also added a couple of photo's of components with vacuum lines right behind the thermostat housing. One has an orange colored hex head, and there's a blue thingy right next to it.
The catalytic converter is intact and I will leave it in place if removing the other stuff doesn't impact it.
I don't drive this van more than 2000 miles a year, as it's not a work truck or daily driver, so it isn't going to decimate the atmosphere if all the extra parts come off. I just want a simple dependable engine that doesn't need a science major to trouble shoot any potential problems.
As you can see by the photo's there's way too much stuff on this engine.

Thanks in advance for the help!