I noticed just moving to an optical ignition on my old 71 Vette made the timing mark rock steady. Timing it with the old points was a "close enough" setup with a timing light. Put in the optical points eliminator kit and that line is dead on every hit. I get what you're saying about slack in the timing chain and stuff making things somewhat less consistent, but I'm not sure you really need a full crank trigger setup to have a noticeable improvement over points.