I suppose you could look at it either way. In my case, the incoming fuel/air mixture was getting contaminated with engine oil, only on that cylinder. The intake valve guides were badly worn, and one of the valve stem seals I installed (after installing an external oil feed to the rocker shaft) came apart. If I had known to retard the spark on that cylinder, it wouldn't have broken a piston. So maybe it was a "timing issue".
But does it really matter why it happens?
Stuff happens. Some years back, a friend of mine got a tank of diesel fuel that had not just water in it, but algae growing in the water. He had to have the truck towed in and the entire fuel system (including the injector pump) disassembled for cleaning.
The equivalent with E10 gasoline (which is required by law here) is "phase separation", where the alcohol gets wet enough that it separates from the petroleum. Since ethanol is around 105 octane; it gets blended with low octane petroleum to get the 85 octane or so mixture sold at the pump. That means if the ethanol is taken out, the remaining petroleum is much lower octane. Guess what happens when you try to burn it.
I'm not saying it's likely enough to worry about. But it could happen. Modern cars all have knock sensors, so they know to retard the spark when they get bad fuel. Doesn't seem like such a bad thing to have on a Triumph as well.