Hey @Kate,
If your main goal is just to remove the date, time, and separator from Event List widget events, then I would actually recommend that you remove all PHP customizations and instead just hide this information with some custom CSS.
So, for example, here’s the schedule information appearing in the Event List widget by default:

Now, add the following CSS to the bottom of your theme’s style.css file:
.tribe-mini-calendar-event .tribe-events-duration {
display: none !important;
}
Here’s how the Event List events look now:

I hope this helps!
Sincerely,
George