Exactly. Octane is not the issue. Octane is just an anti-knock agent. High octane fuels will not cause problems for lower compression engines. But forget octane. You literally get more bang for your buck with premium gas. Only because of our crazy environmental legislation, ethanol is added to fuel. Now, you apparently cannot buy zero ethanol gas but premium contains half as much ethanol as typical regular. Consider that fuel with ethanol has less energy value than straight gas - simple chemistry and thermodynamics. They can't add ethanol to av gas for just that reason.
In the end, when you compare apples to apples, premium gas provides better performance, is better value and creates fewer mechanical issues. Keep an accurate record and the same conditions. Run a tank of "cheap" gas, then a tank of premium. Compare the costs per hour.
This from a Car and Driver test with a Ford high performance 3.5 liter V-6:
"When higher-octane fuel is flowing through its injectors, the engine controller can take advantage of the elevated knock threshold and dial in more aggressive timing to improve performance...Power at the wheels dropped from 380 to 360 horsepower with the change from 93 to 87 octane. That difference seemed to grow, and we could even feel it from the driver's seat at the test track. Compared with premium fuel, regular feed sapped the F-150's urgency both leaving the line and in the meat of the tach sweep. The rush to 60 mph softened to a still-blistering 5.9 seconds, and the quarter-mile stretched from 14.0 to 14.5 seconds, with trap speed falling 4 mph. The high-octane gas also helped when soft-pedaling the accelerator, elevating 75-mph fuel economy from 17.0 to 17.6 mpg. "
This report did not consider the performance losses related to ethanol, either. Gas boat engines are also high performance units, maybe not needing premium gas but operating better with it..
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