As Mark Fine notes, fw sand bunkers are built for a variety of reasons, and along the lines of TD's comments, I like to build fw sand bunkers only if they provide more than one service, including hazard (for someone) plus one other attribute, like aiming, saving, etc. That limits the total number of FW bunkers, unless the developer adds "sells real estate from adjacent lots" which can add up in a hurry.
I don't have a along checklist, but after many years of decision making, long flights and time to think, etc., it would be hard not to develop some idea of how a fw bunker should best challenge golfers. I have stated it before, but good players (and strategic, thinking players) probably wouldn't challenge a bunker unless they thought they had at least a 50-50% chance of a recovery shot to the green, and most would favor a 2 to 1 probable ratio of success. So, at least for the edge of the bunker facing the green, I would propose depth and slope that falls in those ranges, knowing that the random shape of bunkers makes it impossible to attain any particular statistic.
I also recall that Ross wrote that the fw side of a fw bunker should offer less penalty than the far side, which is only found by a worse shot, whereas a pretty good shot could just roll in the inside edge of a bunker. The old proportional penalty argument, mentioned only because there is another thread proposing randomness for bunkers. Most designers would shy away from total randomness, believing it has little place in the form follows function design world. When you consider owning a course, speed of play, maintenance costs, etc. it sort of steers you to placing bunkers that see an adequate amount of play, mostly (but not exclusively) from better players. Obviously, this is less of a factor on the design of destination resorts that can charge enough to cover the costs and it is part of the allure of playing something you don't see at home. But, for the every day course, it is a factor.
As I think I have related, a shaper once asked how deep a fw bunker should be, and I made the pithy statement that it should be 1 foot deep for every iron you expect average players to hit, i.e., 9 iron, 9 feet deep. Of course, that was a flat site and easier to do. It generally mimics a long held and often written general rule of thumb that the closer to the green, the deeper bunkers can be. Later, someone pointed out that the real governing number would be the loft of the club you think average players hit - if a 9 iron has 46 degrees, the front face should be about maximum 45 degrees (about 1 to 1 slope) whereas long irons need more gradual slope at the top edge. Again, it would take a square bunker and flat face to achieve anything like that, so it is something I just generally check to see if I think I (as a decidedly average golfer) would be tempted to aim right at the green and hope to get there.
Similarly, it is difficult to put a large carry bunker right of the first or tenth tees because the context of the location - too likely to slow play. That said, I did exactly that (albeit with a protected wetland) off the first and tenth at Legends of Giant's Ridge, more because I had to than wanted to. Site context also matters, and on sites where water hazards are prevalent, I would be more likely to build recoverable sand bunkers so that not all fw hazards were full shot penalties to provide some variety.
In the end, if I choose to locate a sand bunker in a 10 foot high slope, it usually ends up being about ten foot deep, etc. I dislike raising the floor of a bunker to attain any particular depth. I have seen that on a few Ross courses, such as White Bear 10, which I attribute (not really knowing) to him using some standard plan in the office where he notes things like sand bunker -5 from green surface, etc. The construction guys might have just been following the plans.
And, as also noted by others, nothing wrong with a few fw bunkers that are deeper, although I hesitate to go too shallow. If a golfer sees a real deep bunker, that affects strategy, too, although in general, I think they force too conservative play from anyone who actually thinks about the possible affects on score. I also tend to make them deeper on par 5 tee shot landing zones, because finding it still allows reaching the green in regulation, so no big loss, and on the last few holes, where only success matters, and failure of any kind theoretically leads to loss of match anyway.
Like I say, it would be hard to be in this business and not having considered the question posed in the OP. While the answer is obviously theoretical, and often thrown right out the window for site specific conditions, I have always thought it made sense to understand each bunker in the context of what/how you really want it to play, and work from there.