Come on Tom be honest. Visual stimulation is a part of the architecture! Golf architects go out of their way to ensure such sensations are incorporated into their designs. Even C&C would agree with this and you know it.
I just played The Dunes at Seville, a wonderful Hills design in Brooksville, Florida. You would really enjoy the place as I did. It's low profile with some great looking golf holes. It's not over maintained and is just a fun place to play golf. One of the holes is a really cool short par three of about 130-160 yards. It is somewhat reminiscent of #10 at Pine Valley. It has a huge blowout bunker (actually this was a bomb testing area and Hills incorporated many of these blasting areas into the design) on the right and is surrounded by trouble. But sitting directly behind the green (about 75 yards back so it is not in play), is an elaborate rest area. You know, one of those 20' by 20' concrete structures that you can go into if it rains or something. So you've got this beautifully designed golf hole with just nature in all directions and then this obnoxious building behind it. If Hills saw it he would throw up! In my opinion the guy who put it there didn't know anything about "golf course architecture". He surely didn't say, "this building will not impact the quality of the golf hole since it will be set back behind the green 75 yards so it has no impact on the architecture"!
Trust me, architects are concerned about the visual surroundings and they "are" part of the architecture. Sometimes like this building, they are just out of the architect's control!
Mark