I read the thread. Interesting approach. The statement you mentioned has some truth to it and it also has some things that I do not agree with. The truth is that around VE you will have a tendency to detonate more but the situation is not as simple as it may appear. I think a lot of people try to run lots of timing around VE because they shoot for peak torque and they compensate with fueling by running it a little bit more rich because they will knock if they don't and they don't want to pull the timing to keep things in check. Running overly rich in that range will also keep you too cool as well and that will cost you power as well. I don't want to be too cool or too hot. I believe it's a fine balance. I run low to mid 11s around VE with moderate timing which tends to yield best results. I taper the fueling down to 11 as I approach redline and I climb my timing up to keep the torque curve from falling off. I am curious what EGTs the guy was seeing around that area.

Statement that EGTs drop because cylinder pressure decreases with climbing RPMs is not entirely correct. I think leaning things out towards redline may get you into trouble. It will certainly cost you timing and therefore power. It will probably produce abnormally high EGTs as well. I think you'll also have a higher tendency to pre-detonate which is much more devastating then knock. Single pre-detonation incident can melt your piston.