There are drawbacks, of course, but overall it's a very popular technology.
For example, my father built a temporary house from it in Belarus in 1980s while waiting for the main house construction that was using ordinary bricks. I remember as a child that building from aerated concrete was indeed very quick affair.
"Installation during rainy weather: AAC is known to crack after installation, which can be avoided by reducing the strength of the mortar and ensuring the blocks are dry during and after installation.
Brittle nature: they need to be handled more carefully than clay bricks to avoid breakage.
Attachments: the brittle nature of the blocks requires longer, thinner screws when fitting cabinets and wall hangings and wood-suitable drill bits or hammering in. Special, large diameter wall plugs (anchors) are available at a higher cost than common wall plugs.
Insulation requirements in newer building codes of northern European countries would require very thick walls when using AAC alone. Thus many builders choose to use traditional building methods installing an extra layer of insulation around the entire building."
In California (FWIW), I expect that you hit seismic issues.
Old saw about Generals fighting the last war. Energy efficiency standards assume the need to conserve limited supplies for fossil fuels. And the need to not interfere with building large houses for upper middle class people.
Bad thing is R value is a metric designed to upsell insulation. R30 insulation is twice as good as R15, if you're the guy selling it. If you're the guy buying it, not as much.
A heat pump and solar installation needed heat my house in the winter would cost about $12000. But actually the heat pump would only run as I mentioned above for 5 months out of the year. So really just to offset the energy, $6000.
Economically high performance insulation systems lose to solar panels.
That wasn't true 10 years ago. But it's true now. And it'll get worse going forward.
Since insulation is low maintenance, you'll get those savings over the whole lifespan of the house.
Now, if you're in an existing house, it likely doesn't make sense to tear down all your siding and drywall just to add insulation, since you're having to both demo and build.
New construction with boofo insulation isn't going to solve global warming.
And tensile strength is largely required for larger, earthquake safe concrete fixtures.
This might be true, but it would be surprising, since even "aerated" concrete would still be made of highly thermally conductive... concrete.
The thermal mass is also nice, though it doesn't really help much in winter-time. I think AAC is a bit more suited to warm desert climates where you have a daily hot/cold cycle.