In both conditions, it is principally related to the cellular growth and shear/load bearing.

In the case of titanium and Ti-alloy, as it is biocompatable (i.e. it is inert to body fluid and
allows bone on-growth) it offers a good platform for the bone tissue to attach to the metal
(due primarily to its high dielectric constant).
The topography process does two things,
a) it enhances the surface energy of the titanium by developing a larger surface area,
which results in increased van der waals interactions at the interface. This has been
linked to improved cell on-growth and proliferation.
b) Secondly, topography also offers a shear/load support platform to translate the load
to the tissue. Increased load translation has been linked to increase tissue activity, and
reinforcement of structure around the material interface.
In the case of coatings, these are generally deposited to control the level of on-growth and
sometimes to offer a platform for cellular in-growth (like plasma deposited Ti beading).
Considering the former, by changing the composition of the coating, the bone progression
front can be augmented to move slowly (HA) or quickly (TCP, TTCP).
The science world is a little divided on which method is best, to get early fixation (fast)
or quality fixation (slow), hence the reality is the bio-medical/bio-ceramics/bioengineering world have moved on and are beginning to use coatings of many
compositions (both stable and unstable), and doping/soaking these coatings with
medicine, proteins or growth factors. The reason for the effectiveness of the coatings, is
the dissolution of the coating while, body resulting in the release of favorable ions to
induce/entice cellular actively bone tissue growth. The ions release rate is depend on the
level of crystalline and amorphous material, and will directly affect the rate of bone
growth.
Overall, if the material is doped/soaked, the doping agent is released with dissolution of
the receding coatings, and will only affect the localized area.