As far as I can tell (on my S2T), there's a little diode sensor that sits on the back of the head and travels along with it that is then blocked by a tab on the pinch roller as it goes past. I'm not sure it wouldn't produce negative results, but I assume you could just hack it (the tab on the pinch roller itself) off and the plotter would not know the pinch roller was there. It's a close fit to begin with, so gluing it back on or repairing it would take a committed soul... I wouldn't do it except as a last resort... But hey, tinkers gonna tinker.
Oop, and that made me think to point out that if you wanted to run this as a middle roller, you might be wise to remove one of the two tension springs deeper inside the whole thing. There's the two easily visible springs that are for raising and lowering things, don't touch those, but then there should be two more that you can see if you look upward from below in the back. Hard to describe exactly where they are, but you should be able to unhook one and just leave it where it is, and if you need to reattach it you can use a spring puller or even a weeding pick to guide it back into place. If you leave it full pressure you will most likely get pretty noticeable marks on the material.
Also, take everything I am saying with a grain of salt. I'm not a tech, these are just my own observations.