In high-intensity areas, structures designed according to the elastic story drift ratio limit specified in the national standard Technical Specification for Concrete Structures of Tall Buildings often require numerous vertical components with large cross-sectional dimensions, which adversely affect building functionality and economy. To investigate the rationality of relaxing the story drift ratio limit as recommended in a group standard—Standard for Performance-based Seismic Design of Building Structures —three shear wall structures with progressively reduced stiffness were designed based on the standards, considering the high-intensity region of Kashgar, Xinjiang, as an engineering case study. This study compared the overall structural, economic, and carbon emission indices of the three structures. Further, a deformation-based structural seismic performance evaluation method was employed to quantify the structural component damage level and repair cost under rare earthquakes. The results indicate that all three structures exhibit desirable yielding mechanisms and satisfactory seismic resilience under rare earthquakes; meanwhile, the structures designed with relaxed story drift ratio limits demonstrate superior economic efficiency and carbon reduction benefits. The elastic story drift ratio limit for shear wall structures in high-intensity areas can be relaxed to 1/500 under frequent earthquakes.