good going,
firstly the door lock situation, the lock motors need to be signalled to open, this is accomplished by the control unit of your car, if you see an additional unit in your driver's door - that means that the car originally never had a "motor" in the driver door but just a switch to activate the control unit to open other doors. The "motor" is installed to unlock the doors from the remote control unit.
now about the flaps.
They are automatic air outlets from the inside of the car, they exhaust air from door closing and also let stale air out of the cabin as you are moving along, If you look closely at the fresh air inlet in some bigger cars, you will notice that it actually never seals shut, a 3 or 5mm gap always exists - this is done to refresh the air, otherwise your car may start to suffocate you.