It seems amazing that the MAF can cause so many problems with respect to getting air into the system.
The maf is quite possibly the most important sensor on the engine. It measures how much air and oxygen is coming in to the combustion chamber and the ecu then bases the following operations from that info:
How much fuel to inject
when to inject the fuel
what timing angle to apply
when to fire the spark plug
So, if the maf reading is wrong, all of those really important things will be wrong too. The good news is that its a redundant system. The primary o2 sensor verifies that the calculation was correct based on the results of exhaust gas analysis and the ecu makes adjustments if things don't add up. That's why you see people talking about long term fuel trims. That's the ecu's way of saying, "everytime I calculate how much fuel to use I am running lean or richer than I am supposed to. I don't know why I need more or less fuel and my calculations will still be wrong but I'll add or take some fuel out anyways."
So, when the ecu is working this way, its not working from optimal running maps, its working from band aids to try and fix a problem it doesn't understand.