I haven't read much to suggest that the Bay Area's lack of tall buildings is the result of earthquake fears or "lazy engineering". Besides the fact that SF's tallest building, the Salesforce Tower, started construction in 2013, SF historically has had tall buildings, before and after the great earthquake. SF's and the rest of the Bay Area's lack of tall buildings seems to be a result of local dictate, in the same way that Kyoto lacks tall buildings. Similarly, it would be foolish/overly simplistic to blame the Bay Area's housing shortage on "lazy home builders".