I did more research, you are really in a bad situation. It seems you have one of the first trucks that they went to the returnless fuel system. You are correct in one of your first posts, it's a fuel dampner not a fuel regulator, though most parts places call it a fuel regulator. From what I am reading not even the Ford dealer can get it and it was only made for the first part of the year for your truck, then they changed it later.
Not sure what to tell you about your fuel line fittings either. I will tell you there are several guys I ran across that just left the original part in the system, and just plugged off the vacuum line and drove the truck like that. They said they had no problems, and that the original part didn't function that well in the first place. So if you need the truck bad, I think I would try plugging the vacuum line and trying it like that and see how it goes.
I think someone mentioned another possible solution would be to get the complete fuel rail off a little bit later 3.0 that has the different fuel dampner that you can buy. They did mention be careful and don't mix and match a flex fuel system with a regular fuel system, the injectors are different.