Is it just my eyes or does the next one over look even worse?

They both would have looked the same but after the cylinder looses some compression the fuel/oil combustion will cover cover things up.

so why just those two cylinders? because they fire one after the other? if it was timing shouldn't they all be detonated?

they are the leanest cylinders

No. Ive had motors with some cylinders that you couldn't give enough timing to make them detonate and other cylinders that you couldn't take enough out to keep them from detonating. A lot of times I've ended up with 2 different heat range plugs in a motor. If I had the capability ignition running I'd run different timing in each cylinder.

ring seal and not enough breather area cause this on boosted engines, time for a rebuild and would suggest 5/8 hoses from each valve cover to a large puke tank or 2 small ones(I run this setup). next need to tune with a wide band, pissing in the wind any other way and you could be killing it and never know by the way it runs

so maybe safe to assume the motor was running to lean?

There are to many variables to make that assumption.

Interesting. Good concept.

I've wondered why nobody makes a totally adjustable ignition, or why I've never heard of it. In the Harley world you run 2 programmable, different curves and switch between based on an adjustable vacuum switch. It also allows to advance or retard one of the cylinders and withhold spark for X revs on startup.
Seems like a doable deal for 8 cylinders also.