NONONO!!!
E-berg said that use of EGR reduces the throttling losses because the engine doesn't have to suck in as much air, the exhaust gas takes up some of the space in the chamber. This is a fact, not just something that he said.

As for EGR, On Mazda's Skyactive Diesel they used a relatively low compression ratio. They were concerned about ignition. Their solution was to phase the exhaust cam so some exhaust gas was left in the chamber, warming up the mixture and assuring that it would light off with the lower, like 14.75:1, compression ratio.

The primary reason to use EGR starting in 1973 was to lower flame temperatures. Here's why: Starting that year there were stricter NOx limits. Most NOx that comes out the exhaust pipe is caused by nitrogen hooking up with oxygen and forming NOx starting at around 1500 degreesF. By adding the inert gas there was less air-fuel mixture (energy) in the chamber so temperatures didn't go over that temperature.

The Lambda-Sond system which started being used in about 1980 used a catalyst to cut down the NOx emissions, so EGR was used much less. The NOx catalyst only worked in a narrow band of air/fuel ratios and that's when the electronic control of mixture really began in earnest. It's all about the balance between CO, HC and NOx.

R.