I realized recently that visual presentation and aesthetics are the difference between a good golf hole and a very good/great golf hole.
Take a strategically sound golf hole, a Par 4. Have a fairway bunker left, for those opting for the ideal line in, and the requisite green-side bunker right, and an interestingly-contoured green to complete the package. A good hole - but a straight-forward one, and for a golfer in fine form it offers mostly/only the challenges and satisfaction of hitting good shots.
But take that fairway bunker on the left and blur its edges and bleed them widely into the surrounding fairway and rough/waste area (such that it appears much bigger than it really is); and then manage to erase the lines along the right hand side of the fairway, blending them almost indistinguishably into the rough/waste area on that side (such that the right side now doesn't appear as safe as it once did); and then build-up the back-edge (i.e. the side closer to the green) of that green-side bunker, so that if you're approaching it from the right a good portion of the green is unseen/hidden behind it (so that the golfer's depth perception is now a bit skewed); and then shave down the opening of the green for a kind of false-front/run-up opportunity (so as to seem to offer the golfer yet another choice); and then clear away any and all foliage no matter how modest from anywhere near the back side and left side of that green (so that one fears that a ball hit a bit too long or left will roll on forever and ever).
And what do you have now, after these 5 essentially visual/aesthetic changes? You have the same good golf hole that now also gets the golfer a little more confused, and has him doubting himself and his choices, and fretting on both his drive and his approach, and his heart beating faster as he intently watches his approach and wonders "where is it, where'd it land?". What you have now is not only a good golf hole but a very good one.
Which is simply to state what should have been obvious to me, i.e. yes, sometimes visuals and aesthetics are indeed no more than "eye candy"; but sometimes - in smart and talented hands -- they are precisely the difference between a good golf hole and a very good/great golf hole. The "strategy" is the same for both those par 4s; but the "experience" is night and day different. And I'm taking the "experience" every single time.
Peter