With the bearing on tight to the shaft by set screws rather than just guiding the shaft, does it in any way impede the column collapse or any other movement of the column?
The bearing is only held to the shaft by a set screw, and the bearing itself is only a light press into the column jacket. So more than likely, in the case of an accident the steering shaft would slide through the bearing and the shaft would collapse as normal, since nothing on the top end changed. If the steering shaft didn't slide through the bearing, it would likely just push the bearing further up the column jacket and the shaft would collapse as normal.
Keep in mind that the bearing doesn't really need to be all that tight on the steering shaft. All it's doing is keeping the steering shaft from flopping around in the column jacket, so there just has to be more resistance between the bearing and shaft than there is in the bearing itself. The bearing won't have enough resistance on the steering shaft or the column jacket to freeze out the collapsible section of the steering shaft.
Now, on my car I left the C-clip in place on the bearing, so it won't slide into the column jacket further, but I also have a telescoping DD shaft spliced into my steering shaft between the column jacket and the steering coupler.
