28* initial timing for a 318? How can that be?

That's a good analysis and I think sums up the challenges of what they were trying to do given their situation.
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@92b Totally agree one could go through many permutations but fortunately we don't have to. We can generally find a baseline developed for something the same, or at least similar.

As far as 'thought experiment' that's where I've observed people get into trouble. Just 'cause we think something is going to behave a certain way, doesn't mean it will.
However, there are several pretty well developed computer engine simulation programs. I have Dynomation 5, which is now a bit old, but still a decent one although it has limitations. Anyway at one time I tried to change the rod crank to see if it had any effect on the 'best' timing and it didn't. However IIRC I was using the Fill Empty model. Perhaps if I used the wave modeling, that would have taken into account the piston dwell time. So maybe Dynomation 5, and more likely its replacement can model that. The limitation may have been the user (me).