Yes, I believe all it does is keep the water from the overflow chamber away from the return chamber. So I would just need to cut it away and that's it. Might as well do that too!Yes, it would be an easy addition to make a durso system in your tank.
You could convert the return line to an emergency drain and then run an over the rim return line... that's what I did.
Is there a way to remove the separator between your 2 overflow compartments?