The thoughts of those tiny little ball bearings spinnin' round and round and ... round all the time is almost too much to bear. Every time one of these clutch "spring things" pop up it just heightens the paranoia, at least in my case.
I'm still hooked on the old school, 3/4" pedal play when adjusting the clutch. That 3/4" of play indicated that your throwout bearing wasn't riding on the pressure plate's fingers or diaphragm, you had the obligatory air gap. If it did ride on it all the time you were headed for a premature throwout bearing failure, initially accompanied by some bearing squeal. I know a lot of the newer stuff operates with the throwout bearing loaded, including the new generation hydraulic throwout bearings. Since we fancy our cars to be primarily old school I'll have to give the nod to the clutch return spring.