Of course, in interviews, it's good business for golf architects to stress their clients' wishes. Even I do it nowadays, and I'm not in the same league as Mr. Nicklaus or Mr. Fazio or Mr. Dye when it comes to business savvy and salesmanship.
However, your previous work tends to sort out the clients for you. Mr. Nicklaus has probably not received many calls about building a fun, 6,500-yard golf course [nor has Mr. Dye]. The people who tend to call them have often decided they want a tough, tournament-ready course; if they didn't, they might be more likely to call somebody else. Likewise, Mr. Fazio probably doesn't get too many calls from "dreamers" with a great piece of land but little financial backing. Unfortunately, it works at the other end of the scale, too ... architects used to working on a budget generally don't get calls from big-money developers.
It is surely important to understand your client's wants and needs. However, the two are not always the same, and not many architects will say so at the risk of losing a commission. Some of these big-money developers who built their high-end courses ten years ago might see now that they didn't really need what they asked for.