The goofy, unhealthy(to turf at least, and on so many other levels) greens at Shinnecock in '04 ands '18 are exactly the reason greens chairmen, members, and by Tournament committe members lead the race to the bottom with turf speed, and accelerate the death of interesting green design and pin positions.
Even the most contoured and interesting of modern greens(Old Barnwell with a fantastic set) built today have flattish places to put the pin, you rarely see a pin cut into a reasonable slope anymore.
In the past 6 rounds I've played greens ranging from 6 to 10 on the stimp, with very creative pins and tremendous tilt and slope.
Those greens running 6 had more break in a 6 footer than anything I've seen on a Pinehurst 6 footer(because they have to find a flattish spot at Pinehurst to get the ball to stop) The course running 6 has pins cut into 4-6% slopes-which really affect approaches and make angles actually important.
Just a lot of money wasted to the detriment of the game IMHO.
faster greens with less slope/tilt do NOT present a "interpretively similar" challenge-perhaps on putts, but not on approaches of any length.
To Greg's point, just because we ruined the driving challenge with equipment, doesn't mean we should ruin great greens(and believe me we are doing that) to drive costs and scores soaring(as a compensation for losing the distance/ball battle)