I think it was Chevrolet that used a mesh " diffuser " above the carb and inside the air filter.
The logic was to straighten out the air flow or reduce turbulence or some such.
I have seen pictures and I believe they only did it on H.P. big blocks.
But their engineers thought the idea had merit obviously.
I don't think the gains of running without a filter are worth the shortfalls.
Now , a restrictive system is another story.
I see a lot of tunnel ram set ups with two tiny filters on them and have to scratch my head.
But with quality components , I don't think the power loss is enough to lose sleep over.
That being said , I don't run pro stock.
There are applications where they do hurt performance enough to matter.
But for a street / strip car , I'll always use one.