The notion that we have no real-world experience with how modern skyscrapers behave in earthquakes doesn't pass muster, for exactly the reason you pointed out.

The notion that we have no real-world experience with how modern skyscrapers behave in earthquakes doesn't pass muster, for exactly the reason you pointed out. Not only is the scientific research easy to find on Google, but we can see videos of events on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zw-BvKo0pI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zw-BvKo0pI, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gglhWS23HfM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gglhWS23HfM The notion that bedrock is a requirement is also easily refuted by a simple search of the scientific literature. TL;DR: it's complicated, obviously, but one potential advantage of friction piles and a floating foundation is less movement. We don't need to be professional structural engineers to reject such simplistic, categorical notions; they're patently flawed.