SolarPanels,
You should be able to use either the diode or the resistor.
They prevent a "short" in different ways.
If you don't ever set D10 high there is no issue to worry about.
See reply #3 for how you can still do backlight control with this design.
The problem is that if you return it, there is no guarantee that
a shield you get from somebody else won't have the same issue.
I've seen several that all seem to have copied the same circuit.
The simplest would be to just keep it and either not use backlight control
or use it as described in reply #3.
--- bill