Jon: In a word, yes.
In fact, I have seen projects where one could have created a terrific nine holes, but instead they felt it essential to jam 18 holes on the property and it was so crammed in that they ruined some of the holes that would have been used on the great nine. [Unfortunately, sometimes this is an economic necessity -- when location and land cost cannot be supported by the lesser dues and smaller memberships of a nine-hole couse.]
Just one example: The Old Head of Kinsale would clearly have been one of the great courses in the world had they just built nine holes mostly around the outside edges, perhaps some with multiple routes to the green.
That's also partly how The Sheep Ranch came to be what it is today. When we were routing the course, the consensus was that the inland parts were less interesting, and whenever we routed a hole that played away from the water, no one liked it. So we came up with a plan where you never had to leave the coastline if you didn't want to, you could just play along it backward and forward, and if you got bored with that you could start playing away to the inland greens and then back out.