Hahaha.....
I was driving home from the store last night and there was this RASPY sounding Honda trying to get ahead of traffic. It made me wonder, on situations like this where it is just a high tone, raspy, almost sounds like a model airplane, after putting it on does the owner go "Oh man, this sounds aweful" and end up replacing it with something different down the road? Or is that the sound they shoot for? Cuz I dont really mind a deeper toned exhaust especially if its not that loud, but these high pitched buzzing sounds.. Do those actually sound good to them? LOL.. I was so curious I was going to post up in the Honduh forum here and ask...But, I ended up doing something productive and worked on wiring up the standalone.
As to the crank trigger, Mars has it mainly correct. A crank trigger takes out any error due to belt slop, chain slop, and gear lash. The other advantage if you are using anything more than one of those cheese dicked flying magnet setups(like MSD and Moroso sell for the 5.0 for instance) is better resolution. If you have a 36 tooth(Ford) or 60 tooth(Electromotive) wheel on the crank, the ECU knows exactly where the crank is at any given time. With a distributor, it only gets a pulse every 90 degrees of crank rotation.
Also figure since most stuff made after the early 90s doesnt have a distributor(and most of what does dont use it for timing, only distributing and as a CPS) what do you want them to do? hahah.
Not quite sure what you are asking about being a big deal, but most aftermarket EFI systems either require the use of a crank trigger(Electromotive), or its atleast an option. And if you want to run sequential injection, its almost a mandatory as the other methods to give the ECU the required information are hacks. The way Ford does it(a signature pip signal) isnt recognized by aftermarket EFI. So, no crank trigger and cam position signal, no sequential injection.
I did a crank trigger setup for my car. Will be available on the website soon
At any rate, it uses a 36-1 wheel, and a factory Ford Explorer sensor. I've actually been bragging about it to everyone I know, because its alot of work to make one of these fuckers A)fit, B) Fit and look good, C) be ridgid enough to not flex all over the place with engine vibration, D) not look like a cobbled erector set.