Quick A: it is authorized to do so for performance reasons.

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Quick Q: std::timed_mutex::try_lock* fail spuriously

According to: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2010/n3209.htm

On the other hand, there are strong reasons to require that programs be written to tolerate spurious try_lock() failures:

1. As pointed out in Boehm, Adve, "Foundations of the C++ Concurrency Memory Model", PLDI 08, enforcing sequential consistency for data-race-free programs without spurious try_lock() failures requires significantly stronger memory ordering for lock() operations on try_lock()-compatible mutex types. On some architectures that significantly increases the cost of uncontended mutex acquisitions. This cost appears to greatly outweigh any benefit from prohibiting spurious try_lock() failures.
2. It allows a user-written try_lock() to fail if, for example, the implementation fails to acquire a low-level lock used to protect the mutex data structure. Or it allows such an operation to be written directly in terms of compare_exchange_weak.
3. It ensures that client code remains correct when, for example, a debugging thread is introduced that occasionally acquires locks in order to be able to read consistent values from a data structure being checked or examined. Any code that obtains information from try_lock() failure would break with the introduction of another thread that purely locks and reads the data structure.