Jay,
I heartily agree with your observation. Good architecture reveals its subtleties only over time and through experience, sometimes even by accidental discovery. The really good stuff presents multiple options and alternative ways to solve problems in a risk and reward manner, while providing plenty of challenge and fun. The right mix of width, green design, length, and hazard or interesting ground features, is what makes for high interest, challenge and fun. Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner understand this in spades. Rustic Canyon, Applebrook, and Boston Golf Club each illustrate the proper employment of these concepts in the construction of fun, interesting and challenging golf courses.
Another guy who gets it big time is Mike Nuzzo. Nuzzo's use of width, occasional centerline hazards, green formation that dictates the most favorable approach angle, and variety of hole lengths, coupled with the efficiency and attention to detail one finds in the construction at Wolf Point is just off the scale amazing. Don Mahaffey, who helped supervise the construction there is also a big part of why that course is such an accomplishment. When you substantially change the optimum approach angle simply by moving the hole location from one side of the green to the other, that tells you something about how much the golfer has to pay attention, and how cunning the design is. You'd have to play the place again and again in different winds to fully understand the optimum areas for driving the ball to set up the most favorable approach angle.
Both Mike and Gil often make you pick a side and attack from there. I've played Boston 21 times and I'm still uncovering it's secrets. The way these guys go about it is one hell of alot more interesting than "bunkers left, bunkers right, hit it down the middle."