If unplugging the MAF makes no difference then I suggest you DO need a new one as your fuelling will be all over the shop. Not cheap though.
I have posted on another MAF thread about this as its bamboozling me; if the MAF is on its way out, then surely the car would have displayed rough running symptoms that other people tend to be getting namely poor idle, excessively smokey, sluggish below 1800rpm ish. What's odd is I don't seem to be getting any of that, car runs just fine. Yet I unplug the MAF, and nothing happens!