You are right about the angle, and this is how I avoid the problem...but if you have a longish foot or wide boot, it doesn't take much angle...get a little sloppy and your foot will get caught.
Fixing the problem is easy anyway. See pic: removing plastic along the yellow line should be enough, but you could easily remove up to the red line without issue. There is nothing behind those areas that concerns me. use a Dremel, soldering iron with blade, small keyhole saw etc.
I will remove at the yellow line to start. Hopefully any plastic debris created will hide all that nasty crap on my floor.
EDIT:Ok, I cut off a chunk and that solves the problem. Removing the whole cover would facilitate a professional looking job, but you would also have to remove the centre console cover, and it's to darn cold to fiddle around much... so I just popped the rivet, which allows the cover to be pulled away giving you room to make a quick hack and slash. 5 minutes.
I'll clean up that mess on the floor in the spring. Maybe