CBM,
Dr Mac, may have spoken out against rough, but Travis strongly supported difficult/penal rough along side his wide fairways.
Pete Dye's early work was penal and he was generally criticized for it by the average golfer and the pros. He may have been the only designer in the 60's 70's and 80's to embrace penal elements in design.
In the late 60's, when playing against Pete in the North-South Amateur, we spoke at length about penal designs,
Harbour Town, the use of sleepers and mounds, Crooked Stick and other issues. Later, during the Mid-80's, at Crooked Stick during the Mid-Amateur I spoke to him about penal designs, the fact that PGA Tour pros were hitting fewer and fewer long irons, green quadrants and/or tiers, Old Marsh etc., etc..
I would consider Pete the exception rather than the rule.
I think you can make generalizations on this issue.
If you look at ALL of the golf courses built from 1960 to current date, the overwhelming majority are far from penal.
If you want to further break this down into categories like
RESORT and RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY courses, the number of PENAL courses designed for this use is almost non-existant.
If you want to add PUBLIC courses and COUNTRY CLUB courses, I think you'll find the same overwhelming ratio of Penal to benign courses.
If you also want to look at the work done to all of the golf courses that underwent revisions/renovations/modernizations, from 1950 to 1990, again, the overwhelming majority have been softened, not hardened.
I submit that the trend in new designs from 1960 to 1990 and renovation work from 1950 to 1990 have clearly been away from penal design, to a softening of features, especially bunkers.
You may feel otherwise, but I don't see it, and we'll just have to continue to disgree.
P.S. If TEPaul agrees with you, you know you must be wrong