Weapon Master's Handbook: Additional Design Points Function

[Saberin]

I've had a chance to read through the Weapon Design section of the WMH recently and this has been bothering me.

Do Additional Design Points (ADP) actually do anything? I'm confused about both the RAW and the RAI. The text on the Design Points themselves are separated from the points given in the "Hands" section, which would mean that the maximum available design points of a "Two-handed Exotic Weapon" would come out to 12 (Exotic 5 + Two-Handed 3 + ADP 3), but on the following page a "Goblin Flick-Mace" is noted to have 3 ADP, but its block only contains: Improved Damage (5), Spring-Loaded (2), Traditional (1), and Reach (1); for a total of 9 DP cost, which would be the value of an exotic two-handed weapon. Is the Additional Design Points section just a clarification on the Hands rules?

tldr; does an exotic two-handed weapon design have a max default of 9, or 12?

[Claxon]

The way I always took it was that it added to the maximum, so in your example it should have 12 not 9 DP.

That being said, this should also only be a tool for GMs not players.