Not trying to be rude or anything..Third pic shows rusty lock plate under plastic cover.. If there was no lock plate on there, that plastic cover over the plate wouldn't hold everything together. the clip above it in place wouldn't have kept it from being loose against the "splash guard". plus the steering wheel's compression spring wouldn't be under load, resulting in a steering wheel that is not correctly seated or secured. It is nearly impossible and downright dangerous to drive a vehicle with a missing lock plate.
It is scary as $#!&. Did it once and that was enough. only moved it around the corner from the house, but with an incorrectly assembled column (gm Saginaw same as ours) it wobbled back and forth in my hands when I went to change direction. I got to know them fairly well.