Michael,
Its certainly a VERY good course, so I'm not intending to bash the place at all. I have it in the top 20 on my personal list of courses played, figuring that I've played about 16 of the top 100, so its darn close.
Arcadia through 13 holes under the current routing might be a top 100 course, however, it then leaves the lake and goes back to higher ground for the most part, and I think it loses a little bit there.
Its probably important to point out that the lake does not do quite as much for me as it might most golfers. Its a cool piece of land to be sure, but I'm just as excited by a cool mountain in the distance or the trees and river at Blackwolf Run for example, and I would guess the Sand Hills area would strike a cord with me as well.
The greens are wild, which for the most part I think is cool, although the pin setter could use a little more training from my experience. Its not easy to walk, and I do think some of the flow of the course is disrupted by the abrupt switches to different parts of the property (from 7 to 8 under the current routing would be the worst offender). I could say that about most of the mountain courses I've played though, and a few of them would make it for me. For all that rambling, there's nothing BAD about the place in my opinion, I just think there's probably 100 in the USA that I'd like better.