Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I was hoping I could shed a little light on why (at least) engineers in high-seismic areas are unhappy regarding ACI 318-05 Appendix D.
The biggest reason has to do with The D.3.3 section. D.3.3.3 takes 25% of your strength away off the top in medium- and high-seismic areas. D.3.3.4 and D.3.3.5 then require that a ductile steel yielding failure must govern. The CA Building Code has modified this to state that where steel yielding doesn't govern, you have to multiply your applied forces by 2.5.
This means that the anchorage condition which will often govern is a (low) concrete breakout value, reduced by 25% and then forced to cope with 2.5x the design forces. (I haven't personally dug into the concrete breakout calculations too deeply for situations other than sill anchor bolts, but my impression is that they are broken for some cases.)
For example, this means that a 5/8" anchor bolt with a 1.75" edge distance, which was worth ~1500 lb. under ASD in the previous CBC, now ends up being worth the equivalent of 285 lb. Yes, 285 pounds...that's not a typo. And 562 lb. for a 2.75" edge distance. The wood isn't even close to governing.
As you can see, it's not just that Appendix D is a hassle--hassles can be dealt with. But I think anyone looking at the massive drop in allowable values would admit that something needs fixing, at least for certain situations. Changing the ductility requirements and reviewing the shear-parallel-to-an-edge breakout values would be a good start.
Hope this helps...
Bret