Your tuner doesn't make sense. At high throttle, the EGR is off even on stock tune.

If you stick with the same sized filter- for example our x5 panel filter: The paper filter generally flows and filters better because it has more surface area. This has been tested on other forums, comparing aftermarket filters. In some cases the aftermarket filters that flowed better passed through a lot more dirt.

On my x5 35d, I have a filter minder to measure intake vacuum before the maf. Even with my old filter it goes to at most 4 in H20. 27 in H20 is 1 psi, so 4 in h2o is about 0.15 psi.

In cases where the stock filter is small, like the 335d, running an aftermarket cone filter increases surface area and helps reduce restriction at higher rpm.