You need to find a radio that uses that board in a similar radio - and see what they put in versus what the Lincoln II has now.
Lots of times, they are like Galaxy brand, use one board, but populated for different "models" of their brand.
As to which types or direction to go? I never found anyone interested in "adding in" more parts to see what "occurs" or if they could revert back to an older design or make the performance more predictable in some way.
There will be a few problems - much dealing with what ASQ and the original Discrete OEM versions did, you may be looking at a spot on the board for a feature that worked a mode but for a different display and knob dedicated to that feature. Many times, there may be "open spots" but are for the "Electronic Switching" and it's required support parts to make a function work thru the CPU - so that means it may be a for a dedicated "LOGIC" function that was not originally programmed into the radio and so they didn't populate the board or would have provided any as a means to display.
Usually in this - the Customer usually starts to look at other radios and begins to ask the questions like, "What does this radio do?" OR Does the RX sound better in this? Or I haven't seen this radio before - can I see it (try it)?
Ahemn - then you know the customer wants to barter, deal and trade up (so the wretch, er TECH pushes that concept - whether if it is or not - you can refer to see YouTube for that...) or something to push a bad deal off and onto the Constantly Buying Road we'll go...
Now when you ask about N/C or No Component - that is different. Each radio using that board type might have a "accessory" or added level of performance to the circuit - that is only provided on specific models.
Some instances - this allows for some "CE" or Customer Engineered uses if so inclined - but the tech will need to be savvy with the parts selection and purposes for the design - not saying it can't be done, but you may not like the results after these parts are in.