Some of the later messages in the "Exporting Paragraph Catalog to EDD" thread (http://forums.adobe.com/message/2083552#2083552) dealt with the use of overrides to the formatting specified in an EDD rather than with exporting paragraph catalogs. I've therefore started this new thread for my reply.
Structured FrameMaker was deliberately designed to support the needs of organizations who want all element formatting to be controlled by the element catalog as well as organizations who want to allow overrides. Reasons for the latter include tweaking of page breaks and spacing by a production group after all editing is complete as well as addressing publication schedules that may require publishing a document with a planned structure that has not yet been incorporated into the EDD.
Arnis's observation that organizations in the first category can use FrameMaker's configurable user interface to remove access to formatting commands is a good one. It is not enough to remove the paragraph and character designers; much of the Format menu as well as shortcuts for applying some format changes should also be disabled.
The workflow used in other organizations removes any overrides a writer may have applied. Before a document is published, element definitions (either from the organization's latest approved template or the current document) are imported, with the box to remove overrides checked. Publication may also require that a document be validated without error.
--Lynne