If an ETOPS aircraft is operating right on the edge of it's range circle and it looses an engine or goes down to 10,000 it WILL exceed the time limit no question, and this is still perfectly legal.
The niggling problem I have with all these "legal" issues is whether they are in fact
SAFE. And for me, 180 (or 207) should mean just that. If you start making exceptions where do they end?