I'm not going to claim I'm a tire engineer but now you've opened a whole new can of worms with ultra-low aspect ratio tires.

I suspect higher pressures are mainly for fuel economy numbers, as someone mentioned, along with style. They are supposed to then take up the lack of compliance with the suspension, which is not always successful. This gives the feel and impression of better handling and is one of the easiest ways to do that (lack of engineering slight of hand).

The cost of this trend is pretty high but many people dont understand that. Any loss of pressure (flat) results in a total loss of the tire (no more limping along slowly to the next turn off) and I am hearing about alot of catastrophic wheel failures (cast wheels are garbage, but cheap).