What these assertions show is just how little even experienced shooters know about primers.
Of course this has been studied, and it takes equipment far more complicated than a new mainspring.
Ammunition characteristics are very important for revolving cannon. Issues such as ignition dwell, hangfires, which won’t create a catastrophic event in a single barrel gas or recoil mechanism, will positively cause problems in a externally driven multiple barrel/chamber mechanism.
And what was found was that misfires increase with increasing off axis hits and off axis firing pin hits affect the time to maximum primer flame.
These effects were lesser issues compared with varying other primer characteristics, but they are still there.
I suppose Palma shooters are a very tolerant lot of imperfection even though I would have expected otherwise. In competitions, I want the maximum performance out of my equipment, I expect the firing pin to hit the center of the primer, the hole to be in the middle of the barrel, the chamber to be concentric, the receiver ring to be machined so that the cartridge is in the center of the action. There are always tolerances, but I want as close to perfection as possible. It may not make a difference, but on the other hand, it may. So it would bother me to think I spent a weekend at a match, or flew to South Africa for a Palma meet, only to have my score reduced by inconsistent ignition, sloppy firearm components, or sloppy assembly. If we don’t insist that manufacturers make precise shooting fire arms then we must accept the occasional dropped shot due to poor equipment. There may be those who want to live according to the philosophy of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” ,
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+mar..._20726616.html and to each his own.