Problem when taking advice from drag racers or the DC manual, they only care about mid-top end performance, idle doesn't matter because you let that setting fall where it may ( according to DC). Do you build a house roof (total timing) first, no you don't. The foundation (initial timing) is the thing all other events are driven from.

Not the case with a street driven car. I can hand you two distributors and have them timed at say whatever max HP is, ex 36*. Those two distributors will run wildly different at idle and off idle. Car smelling like it was a fuel truck dumping it's load out the exhaust with one... yep, fun stuff on a street driven car. Proper initial timing solves a LOT of "carb" problems as well.

Total timing method for a street driven car is a horrible way to do things. I've fixed hundreds of street cars over the years that were timed using that method and helped a bunch of drag cars pick up time in 60's because the engine was cleaner off the bottom.

Go time an engine by the book with the 0-5 btdc, set the carb up and put it in gear, then do it with the initial set at 16 btdc, set carb and pull in gear. See how it runs different. Easy test, if you have the car idling and warmed up, add a couple degrees of timing, if the engine picked up rpm, it wants the timing (Efficiency).

Sometimes there is a better method to approach things than the way the "bible" suggest, been proven for more than 30years.