The apmd service should be stopped early in a shutdown or reboot so that the shutdown/reboot processwill not get suspended. This is relevant to all systems, but especially for laptops. For example, I should be able to initiate a shutdown, then close the laptop without waiting for it to complete. A stop level of 00 or 01 works for me.
I disagree. Turning off the machine before the shutdown process is finished (and therefore, all filesystems are unmounted) can be very harmful, therefore, if, for example, battery power runs low during shutdown, suspend-to-disk is preferrable over just cutting power.