Just as a point; Timber sills were the last element to be replaced with dimensioned lumber. A good timber deck can go a long way to distributing point loads along a foundation, helping to bridge failures, and prevent catostrophic failures until the foundation issue can be addressed (should there be a failure). Continous plates can also aid in this.
Connecting girts won't support a Post whose foundation fails in the manner that a plate will. The presence of both Plates And Sills aid one another throughout the life of a building, just to say.
