Is there a technical advantage in having drilled cam gears? Besides looking fancy, they save a lttle weight (how much?), but is it an advantage? Does it alter flywheel effects in the gear train?
It is like asking a marathon runner if lighter running shoes will give him or her an advantage. The answer will be yes, but will the same shoes give you the same advantage?--and the answer is almost certainly "no". If you are building a race engine and you need more power, there are lots of mods that you can do to make more power, say changing the compression ratio or the cam. As you make these mods, it is always a question of: how much bang for the buck am I getting and second, how does it affect the reliability. Titanium valves, for example, might need to be serviced every race and replaced every few, but they may get the number two rider closer to the number one rider. The marathon runner may use new running shoes every race or every few. This too may keep him competitive.
When you see lightened timing gears the question should be: "What are the one hundred and twenty mods that were previously made to the engine that caused the builder to decide he needed to lighten the timing gear." This would be like asking the runner what were the hundred and twenty training techniques that were used to get him to the point where the expensive running shoes made a difference. Most often we just slip on the shoes and hope everyone else will mistake us as a top runner.
To answer a little more directly, I have used lightened gears in several engines because I had them. They were lightened and thinned. In the last engine I used stock gears and it just happens to make more power than the earlier engines with exactly the same components, but carefully built. I have nothing against the lighter gears, but with good horsepower at 7000 plus RPM it is difficult to get too excited about the gears. Then again, sometimes you just want to wear the sneakers.
Maughan will make them for you, but you will most likely have to wait as they do them in batches when they have enough names on the list.
David