You need to understand what low-speed preignition (LSPI) is, beyond the acronym people are accustomed to. I post its illustration again:
(1) The damage is actually not caused by the preignition event itself but it's caused by the "super knock" detonation that follows it after the spark ignition.
(2) The reason why the super knock occurs is the high-power density of the engine, specifically the high turbo boost.
(3) Preignition is likely caused by the oil additives (in particular the calcium detergent) that lower the autoignition temperature of the fuel.
(4) Preignition is likely aided by the direct injection, which increases the mix of the oil into the fuel. However, it can also happen in port-injection engines to a lesser extent.
Basically, the LSPI event is very similar to detonation that would be caused in a highly boosted engine by advancing the spark timing too much -- you get a much more violent detonation because of the high turbo boost than you would get in a naturally aspirated engine but preignition also seems to lead to even a more powerful knock than advancing the timing.
At the end of the day, preignition and detonation are the same phenomena that happen in every other engine. The question is why and how they happen in TGDI or some other high-power-density turbocharged engines with port injection.
Again, at the end of the day, both preignition and detonation are autoignition and they are determined by the autoignition temperature of the gasoline - air - oil - carbon particles mixture as well as the temperatures in the engine. Since temperatures in highly boosted engines or other high-power-density engines can be very high, this is why LSPI happens in these engines and why the detonation can be so violent.
Current postulate in the industry is that LSPI can be mitigated by carefully choosing the oil additives, as they seem to be the main reason behind the preignition. In addition engine design is also crucial.
Coming back to the Corolla, both 1985 Corolla and 2009 Corolla had the exact same low-speed pinging on occasions -- so, it's not an old vs. modern Corolla thing. While I agree that there is probably preignition, it can't always be ruled out. I do advance the spark timing beyond the factory specs, which is causing it in the 1985 Corolla. So, advancing the ignition timing is simulating preignition, which is followed by light knock. You can call it "low-speed detonation with advanced ignition timing simulating preignition."
As for whether SN PLUS oils help non-LSPI preignition and detonation in other engines, I think this is quite possible. As I said it's all about autoignition and if a better oil increases the autoignition temperature, that would help reduce pinging in any engine at least when the oil is a factor. This is just like higher octane gas would reduce LSPI in TGDI engines as well as pinging in other engines.
This seems to be a good article on the relation between preignition and the subsequent detonation:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1468087414530388
Relationship between super knock and preignition
Zhi Wang, Hui Liu, Tao Song, Yunliang Qi, Xin He, Shijin Shuai, and JianXin Wang
State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
"However, preignition/super knock tends to occur at low-speed, high-load conditions, which is the main obstacle for improving power density and fuel economy. ... Super knock is the severe engine knock triggered by preignition. Preignition may lead to super knock, heavy knock, slight knock, and nonknock. Significantly advancing spark timing can only simulate preignition, not super knock. Although knock intensity tends to increase with earlier preignition timing, higher unburned mixture fraction at start of knock, and higher temperature and pressure of the unburned mixture at start of knock, knock intensity cannot be simply correlated to any of the parameters above."
So, there are similarities in LSPI in TGDI engines and the low-speed detonation in Corollas in that (1) they both occur in low-speed, high-load conditions and (2) they both need an ignition event that comes in well advance of the top dead center. The differences are that (1) in the Corolla the too-far-advanced ignition is caused by the spark vs. in the TGDI engine likely by the oil additives and (2) in the TGDI engine the detonation is a super knock likely because of the super boost and perhaps some other factors as well vs. in the Corollas it's only a light knock due to the lack of boost and lower cylinder temperatures and pressures.
This article discovered that the fuel composition greatly affects LSPI events, even when the octane rating is the same:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016236118308858
More about LSPI vs. autoignition here, base-oil type also being a factor:
https://www.infineuminsight.com/articles/passenger-cars/lspi-and-lubricant-auto-ignition/