For early ABC engines, George Aldrich recommended running just on the rich side of peak for the first two minutes to smooth (break-in) conrod and crankcase (for non BB) bearings. That method relieved stresses imposed by the pinch.
This was true in some cases. George also related an incident where he ruined his first ABC engine, an ST29. He got it felt the extreme pinch in this racing engines, and took a hone to it to loosen it up. Of course, it just ruined it.
I think that after that he became overly-enamored of the idea, and took it to absurd extremes. His ABC stunt engine liners had FAR, FAR too much taper and were FAR, FAR too tight at TDC. Stunt engines don't need a tremendous amount of taper because they don't get all that hot, so you don't have to plan for a large amount of expansion. The results were that the engines were extremely hard to handle cold, and put tremendous strain on the crank at it tried to jam the piston into the liner 220 times a second.
The early GMA-Jett stunt engines were hopeless, and that was after (reportedly) Dub Jett had wisely talked him out of most of the taper he wanted to put in. Get that baby stuck at TDC, and it was either pound on the prop until it moved (or the crank broke), or get out the torch to heat it up enough to let go. I heard Larry Fernandez' engine *squeaking while it was running*. It had good chrome on it because it kept going for a long time but overall it was a disaster. Dub later started putting parts fit the way they do the RO-Jetts and those work very well with no particular problem.
For ABC stunt engines you just need a little bit of taper to correspond to the relatively low operating temperatures and keep the liner from "bell-mouthing" at the top.
Brett