So, there's many types of ignition systems, and they all do the same thing... they just do it in different ways.
I like them ALL... but they all have their strengths, and weaknesses.
First and foremost, battery-coil mechanicals... they wear. Springs fatigue, both from time, motion, and finally... current (some points systems actually transmit coil current THROUGH THE SPRING... bad idea, as this heats, and make the spring amazingly flaccid pronto. Contacts get pitted, oily, or fouled up with carbon as a result of condensation, moisture, and oil mist that finds it's way up the distributor shaft from the crankcase (keep good PCV!). The distributor shaft bushing (in distributor base) can wear, causing the shaft to 'orbit' the inside of the dizzy, causing lousy contact operation and unstable ignition. The distributor drive gears can get worn, causing the shaft to vibrate. Where the shaft shares oil pump drive, oiling issues (like aereation) can cause same. A worn or sticky advance mechanism causes idling and other performance problems. Extremely high RPM results in too-short-a-dwell time at the points, so ignition energy drops off, and contact points bounce or lag in rebound, causing misfires at high speed. Too long a dwell time (like, key left on, engine not running) will cook the points and coil quickly. Condensers degrade, and eventually drift out-of-range, or flat out fail.
Distributor caps get moisture and dirt, carbon tracking, rotor wear, etc., and the towers degrade from elemental exposure and HV, they leak down the towers, burn up the rubber, etc.,
With distributor-fitted electronics, alot of those problems go away... but solid-state electronics are susceptible to get 'bit' by high voltage transients and high-frequency... which happens to be exactly what ignition coils are trying to DO...
There's several types of triggering... hall effect (magnetic), optical (visible or UV), and some are just repeating amplifiers triggered by contact points. Hall effect triggers don't like intense magnetic fields (that's what they're triggered by) and really high voltage transients. Optical sensors don't like dirt, oil, 'n other optically-gloppy stuff... but they both work really well when they're clean, and not subjected to nasty electrical things like... poorly grounded coil circuits. IF they fire when the distributor is between towers, they result in backfire-farty running antics, damaged carbeurator stuff, mufflers... and of course, the voltage under open-circuit situation can skyrocket, and come back to bite the trigger/amp module.
Distributorless systems get off a bit easier, not having the cap/rotor issue makes many possible problems go away.
Coil primary circuit amplifiers (usually MOSFETs) don't like getting zapped or reverse polarity... so it takes some judicious snubbing and reverse-polarity protection to make 'em survive what points don't even notice.
I like magnetos with impulsers, too...
