TEP,
I certainly concur with your opinions/premise, especially the physics one! The "stimping" ultimately reduces the usable or reasonable green area for pins doesn't it?
I've thrown out some opinions in the past about not blaming the metric as much as the metricians.. My bottom line on this topic is in the socio-psycho arena.. until you get rid of the macho-hacker-pro-dreamer-wannabe-factor, I think its almost a lost cause.. Isn't it the american way that if "one" is good, then "two" must be better? Al it takes is one dominant greens committee person to nudge the pro or super over the line...
My pet peve is the excess stimping levels attained for our Club Championship and then the Member-Guest, typically both in the fall of each year. For the former it is to help separate the best golfers, I can accept that to a degree, but when the entire feel of the course changes for one tourney, that's patently unfair to folks, who in effect play on a different course for the other ~50 weeks a year, ..
And then there's the member guest stimping follies where the courses are tricked up for a field of players and hackers more worried about how high their's and their opponent's handicaps are than playing real golf..
It's one thing to have crazy speeds and slopes at Putt-Putt courses, where there's at least boards lining the putting surface, or a drain to route you to the next level.. but another to pretend you're something you're not.
The bermuda greens have just come up in the Woodlands from their winter dormancy, and folks are now saying how slow they are.. but true rolling.. I love this time of year.