Not really. It allows for a controlled flame front in the cylinder. With the twin spark plugs, the computer can "shape" the burn to get a smooth pressure wave in the burning gas rather than the random pressure pulses that pre-ignition can cause (the flame front starts at random locations in the compressed volume).

Of course the worse case I've seen was with an old Honda 50 scooter I had in high school. The compression was in the 12+ to 1 range, requiring very high octane. I once put a tank of regular in it - the only way to shut off the engine was to turn off the fuel ****. I ended up draining most of the tank.

So the higher octane doesn't hurt, except in the pocketbook. It may be required as cars get older and more deposits form in the combustion chambers, as these may form sites where pre-ignition occurs. My old conquest required higher octane with the turbo. Just as bolting a turbo or super charger on the standard xfire would require a higer octane due to the higher pressures in the cylinder.

On the far end of the scale, think diesel - the ultimate high octane fuel. The diesel is efficient due to its extreme compression ratios, but it needs a fuel that doesn't fire easily to keep from blowing the engine apart.

And yes, at one point in my checkered career as an engineer, I was designing car components. I was on one of the teams developing the first generation catalytic converters.