My sample size certainly may not be valid, but I think I have seen a general recognition that playing shorter is acceptable.
My personal ephiphany came from being paired with Rees Jones at Pinehurst 2 one year at ASGCA. The other three figured we would play at the 6700 tees and Rees walked up on the tee and said "Are you nuts?" or something to that effect, also saying the 6200 yard tees would allow us to play it like the pros.
I have seen other examples of that. Back when I played in the Vegas Pro Am, my tee shots were equal to the shorter hitters and not far behind the longer hitters (maybe 255 to 275 yards). Now that the difference between me and the longest pro tour hitters is closer to 50-100 yards (245 yards to 295-345 yards) I (and a lot of others) seem to be giving up the idea of playing the next set up in favor of playing a set that lets us approximate the short and mid irons to the greens we used to get and that they get now!
I also recall my Dad not wanting to play under 6000 yards no matter what, but now many seniors report to me that if there is no set of tees between 5500-6000 they know they won't have a lot of fun and don't feel comfortable booking a tee time.
So, in a perverse way, maybe increasing pro tour distance is having a good effect on the game!
As to the contention that some ladies could play longer courses just as fast, well, statistically there are a few, but not as many as you would think. And some of it is pure distance math - 40 shots averaging 110 yards (140 tee shot, shorter approach) on a 4400 yard course has to take less (at about 3 min per shot average) than 50 shots on a 5500 yard forward tee course.