Most places have never experienced an 8.0 earthquake and never should - if you live in an earthquake area (like Japan) then sure, that is going to dominate arch

Most places have never experienced an 8.0 earthquake and never should - if you live in an earthquake area (like Japan) then sure, that is going to dominate architecture choices, but it's not relevant elsewhere. The largest ever recorded 'shaking' in my city is 4.0 IIRC, which was caused by a far away 6.0 earthquake.