"I think the general consensus would be that you were giving up an important part of the game just to make a point or for some esoteric reason (naturalism), and most people will object to giving up something on that basis."
TomD:
Of course that's true to say so perhaps the smartest move would be to not make some esoteric point or give some esoteric reason like naturalism although I don't think it would be a good idea to deny the aspect of a greater attempt at naturalism in architecture. Give them a point and reason that's not esoteric at all and they really can understand like economics! It would be pretty hard for anyone to deny that given the cost of over-all bunker maintenance and repair.
Behr once mentioned that the vertical dimension is the penal dimension and even if the ways to use the vertical dimension to replace sand bunkering probably aren't all that numerous there are enough ways to do this I'm sure.
For a really natural and low cost alternative to sand bunkering I'd favor what I'd call "rough ground" in place of sand bunkering.
By that I do not mean just "rough" grass, I mean rough ground----eg rough dirt intermingled with whatever might pop up in it for a time.
One of the problems with attempting to do the latter is that at first it might run headlong into the Golf Rules definition of a "bunker".
Another problem might be that if "rough ground" is done in such a way that it does not fit the Rules definition of a bunker it might have something of a hard time containing a golf ball hit into it but so what----that's just part of the "iffiness" of naturalism including what might be termed "natural penalty".
This could actually bring back something of the natural element of "luck" and of course many golfers might freak out on that for a time but I expect that to quiet down if and when Bob Crosby gets finished with rerunning this fascinating debate between Joshua Crane on the one side and the likes of Max Behr et al on the other.
If Crosby does what I expect him to do I think this detrimental philosophy of Crane's to seriously minimize luck in the game which unfortunately the game followed can be defeated once and for all and hopefully forevermore!