I think you are onto something here, Mike. If you look at just about all of the great British and Irish courses, they were created, nurtured and continuously improved mostly through the efforts of the club itself (Committees, Greenkeepers, the Professional and/or the Secretary). Few (if any) of them represent the vision of an individual architect. At best, the great architects can only at best share partial credit at places like Dornoch, Portmarnock, Royal County Down, Ballybunion, Rye, Royal Liverpool and Muirfield, to only list a very few.
To inversely parphrase Edison, I think that great golf course architecture is 95% inspiration and 5% perspiration. This is why the really old and really dead guys like Old Tom Morris could establish world-class routings in a day or two. They could instantly see proper golf holes and proper sequencing on land which had already been well vetted by members. If they got the 95% right, the people on the ground (Committee, etc.) could get the critical final 5% right--as well as make significant and often necessary changes-- if they were competent and dedicated (e.g. Crump, Sutherland). Today, it sdeems, architects are expected to get that 100% from the day of opening, which is not only impossible, but probably invites compromises (i.e. cart-friendly/signature hole-hunting routings) which may be hard to ameliorate by later stewards of the property.
I think we do a disservice to all people involved if we deify just one member of one of the numerous teams and indiividuals which create great golf courses over time.