The bit that impressed me the most was the discussion of standing at the proposed tee and considering the strategy of the various shots. In particular he hypothesized a shot that would be played to the left of a trap onto a ridge that would bounce the ball back towards the center but although the shot landed even with the trap, it would be carried further along by the added roll back towards the center. He concludes the player not choosing this shot would have a dogleg around the trap, and have "a much longer shot to the green".
I'm not seeing it. It seems to me that the trap would have to be of epic proportions to cause "a much longer shot to the green." The other thought that occurred to me is that before the modern ball, small gains in distance led more quickly to longer clubs being used, so if somehow 30 yards is gained by playing to the more difficult tee shot, then with old technology and ball that may add 4 clubs to the approach whereas with modern technology and ball it may be only two clubs.
I guess that leads to the question, has the USGA's failure to regulate the ball satisfactorily led not only to courses being obsolete, but also to GCA books being obsolete?