Put #2 into a separate category for just a moment; we'll come back to it.
I think that you would get a close vote between Mid Pines and Pine Needles among golfers that play both more or less regularly. I think it's fair to say that those two stand apart from the rest in the area, at least by a bit. And it may very well be that the folks that list Pine Needles as #1 have Mid Pines as #2 in the area, and vice versa. They are both that good, with no clear favorite.
#2 is a bit of a different animal, I think. I think most golfers, almost of any skill level, would agree that they could play Mid Pines or Pine Needles every day and never get tired of either one; I'm not sure that would be true of #2 because of the degree of difficulty. Others may disagree with that, of course.
The two wild cards in the area right now, at least for me, are #4 and Southern Pines. I have not played #4 since it was redone, and while everyone I know that has raves about it, I'll need to play it before I decide about the "every day" test. The old version certainly wasn't, but getting rid of 100+ bunkers dopey bunkers could certainly change that. As for Southern Pines, I think we have to wait to see what is done to it. I can easily imagine it becoming the equal, more or less, of Mid Pines and Pine Needles, at least someday; the routing is that good. But it has a LONG way to go in terms of conditioning, of course, and I worry about the possible conversion of those greens to Bermuda. I have a lot of faith in that ownership, but only time will tell.