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On a normally aspirated (non-turbo) car, that flame trap is necessary. It prevents stray sparks from catching the oil/air mixture in the oil trap and oil pan on fire.

When my oil trap had become restricted, but it was not fully clogged, I removed it and was able to get everything out. I was amazed at how hard the oil deposits on the inside walls of the trap had become (the previous owner had never cleaned the trap). The trap is made of hard plastic, so I held the trap in one hand and lightly tapped the outside walls with the handle of a screwdriver to loosen a majority of the caked-on material. This took a lot of tapping and dumping of the debris. I then started spraying throttle and carb cleaner into the trap to loosen the rest of the caked-on deposits. Just spray it in, swirl it around to let it dissolve, then dump it out.