A great look without appropriate strategy and playability is inevitably an empty experience to a great extent.
(Reminds me of the joke that admits that sex without love is an empty experience, but argues that as far as empty experiences go, it's one of the best!).
In fact, we often find fault with many modern courses for focusing more on the photogenic aspects than the actual strategies, and appropriately so.
A strategic golf course with a sterilized or unnatural look often creates much the same longing feeling of what might have been. It is hardly as fulfilling as it could be, because while our minds might be engaged, our senses ultimately aren't, or worse yet, are offended or repulsed.
A great course combines both in not only equal measure; they are usually inseparable.
I argue this because while strategy suggests potential road maps for appropriate play, "the look" suggests, and sometimes dictates how we "feel" about what we are doing. A great look can intimidate, cajole, inspire, uplift, calm, motivate, tempt, deceive, and stimulate a whole host of emotions that increase our enjoyment of the game. A great look can even appeal to our spirituality by seamlessly conjoining the hand of God and man in ways that touch us deeply. That inner appreciation cannot be garnered through the pure, cold logic of strategy.
Ultimately, a great look combined with superb strategy affects our play in subtle and sometimes subconscious ways, and increases our innate understanding of the possibilities of what a golf course can be.