Some interesting theories, and there's probably something valid in them all. Bob is absolutely right - there's no way a Brit is going to part with the equivalent of $100K as an initiation fee. When I was taken to the Meadow Club in California as a guest I was horrified how much membership cost and how much that member had to pay in order to introduce me. Our fee structure could not survive long at that level.
Many of our golfers (by which I mean those who play often, competitively) take themselves off to Spain or Portugal in the winter, not to play the classic Arana courses of Spain but to get out on Valderrama, Sotogrande, Las Brisas and all the look-alikes, many of which are British designed. But they have had to be designed in the RTJ manner to compete. These are the sort of courses they see on TV and they know for sure that the US Pro Tour is far better than ours, so their courses must be better and that imitations of them are also bound to be better.
We now have quite a few Nicklaus courses, courses by members of the RTJ dynasty, Weiskopf, Kyle Phillips, Gil Hanse and so on. Clearly Phillips has done something special at Kingsbarns and its merits and demerits were discussed at length recently in these pages. You will find (particularly amongst the corporate golf fraternity [big money here]) a genuine desire to play The Oxfordshire (Rees Jones), Carden Park (Nicklaus), The London (Nicklaus), Celtic Manor (RTJ 1 & 2) and, of course, The Belfry which was probably our earliest native attempt at recreating American-style golf.
Earlier in the year I took an American guest to look at 'The Brabazon at The Belfry' (as they call it - ungrammatically). He had seen the Ryder Cup on TV. We watched as groups of 4 players all kitted out in identical new shirts and caps bearing a company logo teed off from the first, being video-filmed as they did so with the company's banner in the background and the famous lake on the 18th in the background. How many of these played golf seriously and carried genuine club handicaps I cannot say, but it was very few, to judge by the standard of play of the matches we witnessed. They were being treated to rounds of golf at over £100, would no doubt have a fortune spent on them in the restaurant and bar and may even have stayed overnight at the company's expense in the hotel. This is where the money is. These are the people who call the tune. It is for this market that almost every high-end new course in Britain is designed. The only thing to be said in their favour is that they are doing little harm to the boring sites on which so many of them seem to be built and there is very little fecund ground left unless you are prepared to create it yourself as Phillips did at Kingsbarns.
However, having witnessed the subtle changes to Birkdale made by Martin Hawtree (especially his rebuilding of the greens) and knowing Donald Steel's intimate knowledge of and appreciation for the classic British courses, links and inland, I don't doubt that they could both turn in a modern classic if they were given the budget and the client wanted it. But it's very unlikely that the client would.