It does help to burn off the deposits in the engine, including plug fouling.
My ‘85 Corolla, like the ‘87 Corolla I had before, is particularly prone to running a bit rough, partly from high mileage (249k) but mostly from a lack of electronics; no injection, no solid state ignition, just an old-school carb and a distributor. However, that doesn’t mean that newer cars don’t benefit from occasionally being pushed.
Fun fact; most cars produce peak power somewhere between 4500 and 6000 RPM (depending on the car), and twin-cam models often produce peak torque somewhere between 3000 and 5000 RPM (again, depending on the car) while single-cams produce peak torque a bit lower, often somewhere around 1800–3000 RPM. The peak torque is important as peak torque is where the peak volumetric efficiency is, which…
Well, long story short is that, since most people are afraid to operate their engine at anywhere near the RPM where if burn fuel most completely and efficiently. They seem to think that high RPMs are always wasteful and/or harmful to the engine and thus drive conservatively enough to cause more harm to their engine than they would if they drove it using the full performance envelope.
@wilma You probably are one of those types. Either put a little lead in that foot, stock up on engine cleaner, or plan on engine issues down the road. My ‘yota didn’t last so many miles and stay running so strong by allowing crud to accumulate in it!