I'm no mechanic, but I believe the vent is for allowing air to escape. When the vehicle is cold, and the rotor inside is not spinning, the air inside the cap is cool, thus dense. When the rotor begins to spin, the air warms up, becomes less dense, and expands! So the vent is there to allow for temperature differential, and other physics related actions. Not to mention, electrical arcing causes heat, and gases, and they need to be vented.
Though, if I recall, there was an article on distributors in a recent Jp or OffRoad mags. I'll take a look tonight.