Phil,
my thesis is that a power fade is easier to control-which should give the golfer an advantage, particularly if you are looking to hit certain spots in the fairway.
A power fade is easier to control. It's just that the need to control your tee ball is less of an issue -- in terms of overall scoring -- at Augusta than almost any other course these guys play.
Look at the record -- pure distance (regardless of whether one is a lefty or righty) is a big advantage at Augusta. Nicklaus (really long relative to the field for five of his six wins), Woods (4 wins; among the longest of players -- still), Mickelson (3 wins), Norman (never won, but contended a zillion times, and among the longest players of his era), Couples (really long when he won in 1992, and like Norman he's contended a bunch at the Masters), Palmer (long for his era), Watson (not a boomer, but not short either), Seve (maybe the best example of this) -- all had stellar lifetime records at Augusta, and all were long (or not short) hitters for their eras.
Sure, there are some outliers -- Zach Johnson during the very first year of the changes at Augusta (and a strange weather year, too), Weir, Faldo (who won it three times when he simply had few peers as a golfer). Augusta rewards other things than just length -- good putting for starters -- but length has always been an advantage at that course. Ask a typical player who's competed at the Masters whether he'd rather take accurate placement in the fairway, or XX yards farther down, and I'm guessing most would take the length.
Trevino's disdain for Augusta has been well-chronicled, and I'm convinced one of the reasons was that the course just didn't suit the way he went about attacking and playing a golf course.