lower iats dont give you ponies, it allows you to keep the ponies you have. by not retarding the timing you keep the power longer. the ecu wont advance the timing anymore than the tune is set for.
tune for meth and have a leakdown, run out because your failsafes didnt work and you could pop a 36,000 $ engine. this is a non forgiving way to advance timing and it only takes 1 issue to give you a huge paperweight