Hello Phil,
The purpose of the accel retard (as it is with the accel enrichments) is to front run the added load resulting from the extra airflow during the transition of higher inlet vacuum to less inlet vacuum. Which has to be applied only shortly until the manifold pressure has stabilized; yes faded out retard would (theoretically) be slightly better, but in practice it does not matter much.
For reference, i copied a small section from some old GM (1981 - 4,245,605) patent about AE describing the effect properly (for that time):
"During transient engine operating conditions where the absolute pressure in the intake manifold is increasing, such as during throttle opening maneuvers, lean
air/fuel ratio excursions in the mixture drawn into the cylinders will typically result if the fuel supply rate is not increased beyond the normal steady state running
fuel requirements. While this is the case with asynchronous and part fuel injection systems, it is particularly the case in a synchronous throttle body fuel injection
system where fuel is injected into the throttle body once for each cylinder intake event and then drawn into the intake manifold before entering the cylinders to
undergo combustion.
One reason for the lean air/fuel ratio excursion is that some of the air mass entering the intake manifold during a throttle opening maneuver remains in the manifold to
bring the manifold pressure up to the new higher manifold pressure value resulting from the increased throttle opening The determined fuel injection period based
solely on the higher sensed manifold pressure value does not account for the mass of air entering the manifold to bring the manifold absolute pressure up to the
new value. This unaccounted and unfueled air mass results in a lean air/fuel ratio excursion that may result in degraded engine performance and emissions. The
same effect is present in port injection systems to a lesser degree, the unaccounted and unfueled mass air being the amount required to increase the cylinder pressure
to the new manifold pressure value. In addition to the foregoing, the air/fuel ratio is further leaned during throttle opening maneuvers as a result of increased fuel
wetting of the throttle body and intake manifold during increasing values of manifold absolute pressure."
Best regards, Dave