This thread made me realize again that in Europe about 99% of golfers walk, and in stark contrast in the US most use carts (what percentage?). Maybe that is why as an European architect I am so keen on keeping the walking distances between green and tee as short as possible. Walking IMHO gives one a much better sense of the routing of the golf course and how it fits in the landscape.
Jud, I hope you are right about the average Joe still registering a great routing at a subconcious level, just don't know how to prove it. I was just alarmed by my quite knowledgeable golfing friend not putting as much emphasis on routing as I would have expected.
The thread also made me realize I'm lucky not having to deal much with building golf in housing environments. Most of the courses I build are on flat sandy farmland, but at least there are no houses....
On TOC, many of the oldest routings by definition were out and back, thereby leading to less diversified routings. But again green to tee distance is very short and the green sites are quite interesting. For me TOC is an interesting example, since it shows how one could build great golf courses with very little earthmoving on basically flat ground.