Adam:
Those are all pretty bad misapplications of the rules, for sure.
But what do you mean by citing these as examples of how badly "the Associations" have dropped the ball?
The local golf associations cannot control what each course decides to do; what local rules it puts in place, what markings it uses, etc. And how much spreading of the word about the rules do you really expect them to do? They publish such... and at least here in NorCal, have websites about such... do articles about such in the newsletters....
If courses want to ignore the rules, what can the Associations do about it?
One thing we do here is we do course ratings via the rules of golf, regardless how a course treats such rules. We then tell them this and admonish them that they are cheating their members and in the end giving them artificially low handicaps.. if they choose to blow us off, what can we do?
In the end you're correct - bet heavily against regulars at such courses.
Just don't blame the Associations for it - blame course management!
TH