First, I want to say thank you to everyone who has responded, providing input and ideas.
I found
my forum post when I first had a very similar issue, dealing with CEL/reduced power and the possibility of it being the VTC. My solution ended up being keeping it on "zero", because I liked how regardless of setting, on throttle lift off, it immediately cut off throttle as opposed to tapering it off.
Fast forward a bit, I was having a different issue, I don't recall the symptoms. I went to bring it in, and was having a damn hard time unplugging the VTC. A hard enough time that I didn't want to break anything trying further. I tucked it away and brought the car in. They said I needed a new throttle sensor, and they mentioned the VTC. I actually thought "oh good, they disconnected the damn thing". Of course, they said they hooked it back up. I leave it at "zero" and move on.
That brings us here. Upon the (very logical) advice to remove the VTC, I was determined to remove it. Well, it was an easy removal this time.
Today my commute was uneventful! Granted, it was slick and snowing, so my driving was a bit different, but given traffic it wasn't significantly different driving that usual.
So fingers crossed!