In my quick quirk quiet kind of a way I think it could have function AND depend on the DNA(related to "its" nucleotide sequences) for its existence and information transfer abilities. We often talk of the DNA aND RNA and Protein as 'sequences' like the fibinnocii numbers form/at a sequence but we dont consider the way the numbers are represented to be "part" of said 'sequence' (ONE could be 1 or I etc)but if one can search a DNA Library it may be possible to find that both "1" and "I" show up in identifiable patterns among DNA, RNA, and protein such that the repeating of 1 gives an assymetry of electron transfer that I matches symmetrically and due to the nature of physical conductivity the function indeed may depend CRITICALLY on the DNA SEQUENCE in order to establish its existence and as long as the existence does not PHYSICALLY prevent the flow of said electrons which may need to maintain thermal contacts etc they can increase by mistakes in replication nonoverwhelmingly and thus recieve the apethet- "junk" no matter the history from saying this origin...
This however would term and turn the notion of "classical" and "functional" on my angels on the pin head which indeed would find an explanation for the population genetics of Lichen introns possibly as well. It would indicate that functionality of the "classical" gene is depauperate to biological reality if true.