All I mean is, a good routing over a decent piece of ground will endure, regardless of how awful the bunkers look or how poorly they've been placed, for example. Or how intrusive trees and cart paths may be.
But then, when you have a good routing complimented by equally good putting surfaces, bunkers and other hazards [both in regard to aesthetics and placement], and of course, a good tree plan, you enter the realm of Pine Valley, Cypress Point, The National GL of America, Shinnecock Hills, and those other courses that fall into the category of 'greatness'.
You can fix all of the 'icing on the cake', but it's very difficult to fix a bad routing. Brad Klein said it, 'Routing is destiny.'
Funny, I just had a potential golf course developer tell me that 'routing the course is the easy part'. He just needs someone to 'stamp' his drawing and build the course! Needless to say, I'm slowly peddling backwards, away from that situation.