Jeff:
This is a great topic and bad timing for me to give it a thorough answer as I'm about to get on a series of planes today, heading to Africa.
I think every architect has to be somewhat conscious of potential criticism of a hole, unless we are the actual developer and not just the architect. Ultimately the course is going to be owned and operated by others, and if the criticism affects their view of the hole, it's going to get changed. [Example: 14th at Bandon Trails]
Personally, though, I've never worried much or thought much about commercial success for myself; I am building the things I want to build, and hoping others appreciate them. I just have to worry about it for my clients, to the extent they bring it up.
I generally know when I am building something controversial, and I do it much more often when I've got a client who will be accepting of it. Two of my best courses - Barnbougle and Ballyneal - were for clients who didn't play golf much at all, and just encouraged me to build things that would be fun to play. They didn't know enough to judge a hole as "unfair" and they weren't going to listen to someone else tell them. That was incredibly freeing from an artistic standpoint.
The other thing is that I'm not afraid to build a "cult" course which some people will hate, but others will love, so long as there are enough of the latter to make it work. That's a tough equation to sort out sometimes: it worked for a while at Royal New Kent and Stonehouse, and they still have their fans, but where they are located is not a big enough market to sustain them once the one-time visitors stopped coming.
As for my deal with Mike Keiser . . . he was afraid of hiring me originally because he "likes flattish greens" and was afraid he couldn't get me to tone them down. Luckily, multiple people he respects told him just to express his wishes to me, and for Pacific Dunes, I promised him that I would give him veto power if he thought a green was too severe. I wouldn't have done that if I wasn't sure I could build 18 greens I was happy with that he wouldn't want to veto. In the end, there was only one contour in one green that he was concerned about, and you would never in a million years guess which it is, but I learned a lot about his likes and dislikes from the experience.
The odd thing is that when I built Streamsong, for a client who was just fine with difficult greens, Mike went back to thinking I always built crazy greens, and it took him years to remember that I can do them either way. He does tend to believe that every course should be built the way he likes them.