I think a few things could be more clear:
- PITCH is the distance between fasteners (in line with the load).
- WIDTH is the distance between fasteners (perpendicular to the load). This is the distance that plasgears and rb1957 are referring to.
For the WIDTH, the basic failure modes are net section failures and bearing/fastener failures. If the width is too far apart, then you will have high bearing/fastener stresses. If the width is too close, then you will have a net section type failure (i.e the "swiss cheese" that plasgears referred to).
You can run some simple checks for "net section" and bearing and fastener type modes to come up with joint optimization. This depends on the material system and the allowables (i.e. metallic vs. composite). The numbers above are reasonable, but are not written in stone. The other thing to consider is that you might want to have a larger width in the event that there is an error during manufacturing (misdrilled holes, etc.). You may also want to bias it towards a more graceful bearing type failure mode by increasing the width.
For the PITCH, it is not nearly as critical (as should be obvious right now). However, if the joint has multiaxial loading or shear, then it becomes the width. The pitch itself would have a small affect to the fastener distribution, which is usually more important in fatigue of metallics and static strength of composites.
Brian