I have always believed in making joinery such that pegs are unimportant beyond securing things together for raising. I know many fine carpenters use pegs for structural reasons, but I avoid this at all times. And Tim introduces part of why I do so. To reduce the tension force of entire timbers down to one or two much smaller points can create a tremendous pressure. To me it seems better to have the joinery itself designed to handle tension if need be (yes I understand there is the incident of live forces temporarily placing a compression joint into tension as well)
I have always been a big fan of peg-less joinery, believing the fewer holes you cut in the timber, the better.
