EFI is great. And no it does NOT require you use fuel of higher octane than the engine needs with a carb. Now if you have a 13:1 engine EFI will not let it run on pump gas either. EFI is not magic it's just a diff way to fuel the engine. All of them will use the O2 sensor to keep the fuel mixture in an acceptable range while they autolearn....After it learns your engine, theres little need to make changes.