"All I was saying was that Thompson among others, was very good at designing aesthetically pleasing courses on sites that were not seaside."
Flynn's bunkering may have been more aesthetically pleasing on seaside courses than inland courses. But that is not to say his inland courses are not aesthetically pleasing on the whole. We were merely discussing the aesthetics of his hazards. His naturalistic and minimalistic styles are to me quite appealing and when hiding the hand of man, aesthetic as well though subtly so.
Where he used considerable earth moving and engineering, such as at Cascades, he made it look very natural--my favorite aesthetic. Certainly, not all the bunkers, but there's no natural sand in that region of western Virginia. His naturalism fooled you as you thought he laid the course out on the site in a very minimalistic fashion rather than the considerable engineering that was involved. Likewise the engineering at Indian Creek. That was entirely man-made yet looks natural. So the overall aesthetic, not just the bunkering, was of a high level on all of Flynn's courses.
"...I have been saying for years - on most of Flynn's sites "14 courses out of 50 is not most", Flynn did just what you said he did which is focus more on placement, strategic influence, etc and was not as concerned about building dramatic "fancy" looking bunkering."
Again, I said that on 14/50 courses all of Flynn's hazards were tremendously aesthetic. I also said that on the other courses, the predominant outline of the bunkers were rather plain but that floor contours, the surrounds, some of the bunkering and other factors had high degrees of aestheticism. And there are other aspects of the courses that are aesthetically pleasing, mostly the natural features on site such as streams, rock formations, overlooks that he would take you to, etc.
Please tell me how Cape Breton Highlands, Capilano and St. George's bunkers are so much more aesthetic than Flynn's more prevalent bunker style. From Ran's photographs it does not appear so to me. Banff however does appear more aesthetic than Flynn's typical parkland style however when compared to Flynn's seaside bunkering, they don't appear to be considerably more so to me. I know Ian has seen a lot of Thompson's work and I trust him when he says Thompson was more concerned with aesthetics than Flynn but he wasn't all the time if I can trust the sampling of Ran's photographs. I don't know how Thompson wanted them maintained, but there are quite a few simple shapes. Where Flynn had simple shapes, the surrounds were aesthetic with the grassing, for example Brookline, which has some of the best looking inland bunkers by Flynn.