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The problem is the stress resultants for a particular element are normally not in the x/y directions, unless the bending in the element is perfectly symmetrical. The Principal Stresses are at a different rotation to the X and Y axes.
But most times a slab is reinforced in the X and Y directions. When you rotate the axes to X/Y, from the Principal axes, you end up with Mx, My and Mxy.
Mxy has to be accounted for in determining the reinforcement requirements in the X,Y directions.
If you reinforced in the principal stress rotations, Mxy would be 0, but that rotation is different for every element so that is not practical.
An alternate solution would be to calculate the capacities in X and Y directions and then transfer those capacities to the principal stress rotation for each element. But that would be even less practical in most cases, but would remove any conservatism in the Wood Armer Method.