Over the years, I gradually trimmed greenside bunkers back to at least the front of the green. I have watched, and also seen the stats of how many average players miss short and especially short right.
The general theory is that lateral bunkers challenge everyone. Even tour pros have a dispersion pattern from left to right as shots get longer. Yes, theirs is more like 5-10% of approach shot laterally, vs. perhaps 15% of the bogey player, but they may also be aiming closer to the pin because of that skill and lateral bunkers are still in play. They have some more distance control issues on shorter approach shots. Otherwise, short bunkers only challenge the bogey player when they don't get full distance on an approach shot. So, why use them?
Of course, they look great in many cases. If you study most bunkers, the first few yards are almost always invisible to the player. Only the back edge of the bunker flashed up, is visible. So, you will see many of my courses where I converted what I drew as sand to a grass bunker in front. Fazio always called those lead in bunkers, as the depression in front sometimes helps the visibility of the bunker. The grass depression often keeps a rolling bad shot out of the sand.
On most projects, architects need to minimize sand for construction and future maintenance costs, so choosing to use (mostly) adjacent greenside bunkers only can limit sand cost and speed play and still maintain the challenge for the better player. If the mantra is "challenge for the good player, but playable for all" severely limiting bunkers that are well in front of the green (i.e., Pete Dye long strip bunkers) is one good way to achieve those goals.