I use the word "prefer" in my title, though it perhaps should read "only understand".
When I play a golf course, whether it be one I know well or one I am playing for the first time, I love to discuss it with my playing partners.
I've noticed two things:
(1) My playing partners always say features should be added, and they are always features that would make the golf course more difficult. Usually it goes something like: "I always seem to hit my ball away from the water on the right and into the left rough. The thing is, it's really not so bad from over there, they should probably put a bunker or some trees over there."
(2) I generally advocate the removal of hazards/trees or changing mowing lines to reward risky shots. I played today at a course that I belong to (and know very well), and in talking to my playing companion, received further anecdotal confirmation of my hypothesis. Hole 1, a par 5, has a bunker jutting into the right side of the fairway 100 yards short of the green. The green is best approached from the right. When my playing partner carried the bunker on his second shot, he found the long rough on the other side. I said the mowing lines should be changed to reward him for playing a very good shot and carrying the bunker. He told me, "nah, it's good that there is rough there because that way the hole is harder and you have to approach the green from the left, which is harder" (there are deep fronting bunkers on the left.
And further anecdotal evidence: Hole 3 is a very hard 440 yard dogleg right P4 with hazard all the way down the right and woods 20 yards off the left side of the fairway. There is also a single tree just off the left side of the fairway some 210 yards from the green. To be behind this tree, you have to be 220+ yards out and in the left rough. Who is this penalizing, really? I advocated removal, and he said "but then if you hit a really bad shot to the left, you can have a clear line in." Give me a break, this is from 220+, does it really need to be more penal.
What say you all? Do most golfers prefer penal architecture, perhaps because they understand it better?