[cperciva]

any trigonometric computation requires computing modulo-pi to an accuracy of 1 ulp

For the trigonometric function itself, sure. For any reasonable algorithm which uses the trigonometric function, no. If find yourself computing sin(10^6), you're not really trying to compute sin(10^6); you're trying to compute sin(x) for some value of x which you know lies between 10^6(1 - epsilon) and 10^6(1 + epsilon). So the extent to which trigonometric calculations can lose precision by not doing extra-precision argument reduction, that precision was already lost in computing the unreduced argument.