Ed
I tend add my own intro to all those sorts of conversations: nearly all the courses in question are good. Folks are just trying to figure things out.
The rankings are tainted with past and present prejudices which often involves championships and history. For instance, I wouldn't place Carnoustie, Lytham, Turnberry, Troon or Oakland Hills on any sort of list of courses which I consider the best, but that doesn't mean these aren't very good courses. They more or less serve a specific function at the cost of what I think is the opportunity to be better courses if hosting championships weren't such a high goal, and that is fair enough.
It will be interesting when Ian Linford posts his Best of List. I am betting there will be some surprises, but I expect much of the list will be status quo because the members of this site aren't all that different from the golfing public at large. Most want to play the championship courses and those with history and will boost these in ratings because they are meant to be great. Its human nature to want to make connections with the past and in some way be part of it. In a way, its almost like hero worship. When we finally get to meet our heroes we don't want to believe they are less than awesome.
Ciao