Dan,
We can all remember tremendous shots we've played or observed others pull off. One I'll never forget was by a playing partner, in a scramble of all things. We were nearing the end of the round, playing a long par 4, needing to get some tee shots in from the weakest guy on the team, who had hit a really decent tee shot but sliced it into a fairway bunker. We had other balls in the fairway but chose to take our second shot from the bunker, reasoning that we'd have a tough time getting the ball close enough for a birdie putt even from the fairway and if we missed the green from the bunker we could get it up and down for par with four pitches and four putts.
The first two guys completely flubbed their shots. I was playing to probably a 4 or 5 handicap at the time and I don't actually recall my shot but I'm pretty sure I caught it a little heavy and missed the green short left. The final guy, a scratch or near scratch player, then hit the purest long iron from a bunker I think I've ever seen, finishing pin high to a hole cut on the back upper tier of the green. We made the birdie putt.
Another example. I played Old Works last fall. On the eighteenth I pushed my tee shot into a bunker right. The course has slag for sand and to that point I'd been in it but hadn't played it very well. My second to last shot, though, I made perfect contact from the slag, setting up my only birdie of the day.
Now in each case, if the bunker had been deeper or the lip higher, pulling off the memorable shot would not have been possible. And even though a shot from sand may not strike fear in the heart of better players, I think it is still a significantly more difficult surface, compared to grass, to get consistent good results from.
Years after the shot played in the scramble, I ran into the guy who had played it. Now this is a guy who has played a ton of high level amateur competitive golf but there was little doubt when I reminded him of that shot he had hit that it was every bit as memorable for him as for me.
There's also that shot Tiger hit one year on the eighteenth hole to win the Canadian Open, which I think even Tiger ranks as one of his most memorable shots ever.
I'm not against courses with highly penal bunkers. In addition, though, playing off non-grass surfaces, e.g., sand, in and of itself, can provide some welcome shot making demands and variety, not as difficult perhaps as really short or really long grass, but different and more difficult than fairway turf.