Bluetooth and Wifi working without Airport/Bluetooth Board connected?

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but.....

I was recently repairing something else and found myself (disabled, low vision, low dexterity, tremor) having to reconnect the wretched little antenna cable connectors to the Bluetooth board. After about 4 hours of continuous work, realizing the futility of this, I gave up and left the cables disconnected, assuming I'd have to buy a USB adapter to replace the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth functions.

But....... My Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are working fine without them.

What's going on there? What do the antennae cables really do?