I'm thinking the spring and base are supposed to control air flow and also somewhat the pressure and wicking, BUT I think the Chinese didn't clone that aspect right. I'm guessing that maybe the threading on the base went higher in the original, and could block some of the hole, don't really know, but either way I have screwed and unscrewed the base and it makes no difference for me.
The cloners seemed to have totally misunderstood how this atty works and made a lot of mistakes because of it. Thankfully they left enough alone to still get it working great, but with a little more effort than should be required.
Anyways, more than an hour into this build I'm using, which is exactly like in the video I linked, and it's still working just great. I need a few days to be sure, but so far one of the best things ever. It's wicking great with no wick in the channels, it has gotten dryish a few times but never burnt, but just a few dry pulls and you'll see the bubbles letting you know it's working, but even that hasn't really been necessary, just desirable.