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I looked closer at the "plate" area after cleaning the head surface a little.
It turn out there is NO plate. The O-ring on the intake kept the area inside the O-ring clean, while the area outside the O-ring corroded because it was exposed to the air. This gave the look of there being a plate.
It's just the surface of the head with a hole in it.
See the picture below:
This is on the engine that is being replaced, the original 2.2L in the 2011 HHR 1LT.