This is a complete shower thought and I have no clue where to post this.  When I was a kid, my parents had a V70 2.4T (ME7) and a B5 Passat 1.8T (had a cable throttle, no clue on engine management).  My parents regularly used 87aki fuel in these.  Did they just survive based on the engines being strong and the tune being conservative?  Is this what the "x during continuous knock" maps are intended for?  Searching for octane in the FR yields surprisingly little and I'm just curious.  I imagine the strategy would be along the lines of:

Pull timing first (it's the fastest variable the ECU has control over but also raises EGT)
Very rich AFR next (rich mixture burns cooler, cools combustion chamber, also lowers EGT)
Reduce load last if you can't spray the knock out with fuel and timing adjustments

I've heard people say stuff along the lines of "cars in the US are required to run on 87aki without damage".  A quick google search is inconclusive.

Just looking for some insight

I literally just learned of the alfa FR like two days ago, I didn't realize it was in English. 

also your parents probably drive like old grannies.

even if the stock tune didn't have so many protections, i'm sure driving gentle wouldn't do much even with bad gas.

a lot of people never see WOT. I have friends that think that their car will break if they rev over 4k rpm.
so they never do,  like ever.

It's both but its not ideal.

If it was done properly you would make more power, have better economy, wouldnt blow pistons on highway runs etc, obviously.

well, if it was a boosted 90's honda it would have blown up after one or two highway pulls for sure.

this bad tune was actually what prompted me to learn to diy. I realized I couldn't trust tuners.
so I ended up fixing the tune myself.