Ok, I think I found out what the defective pin and spring is for. And why you can safely remove them.

After looking at some diagrams of the steering wheel locking system, it looks like the pin and spring act like a latch release, or a small stop system designed to allow the driver to "feel" the positions of the key when turning. It acts like a little pressure system so when you reach position 1 and 2 on the key you feel a slight pressure to let you know you are there, and it keeps the key from easily slipping out of that position once set. You can still feel the positions without this pin assembly, you just have a little less tactile feedback.