Dave,
I don't disagree that creative architecture is about creatively making the most out of the land while somehow getting around its limitations, as you say. I am NOT talking about routinely disregarding architectural merits for the sake of the simplest maintenance, but simply considering their impact.
There is a thing called the design triangle - strategy, aesthetics and maintenance. Frankly, we might add speed of play and environmental concerns, making it a pentagon, but lets keep it simple. On one project, the sides of that triangle might be equilateral, while on another, it might be tilted strongly to any point. Typically, the muni courses (of which I design several) lean towards maintenance. At an exlusive club, it might lean the other way(s).
For those majority of courses where practical considerations rule by necessity, and we pick the maintenance difficulties the super might have. For instance, we might do highly contoured greens or fancy bunkers while reducing tee size or eliminating (usually and easy choice) fairway mounding/contouring that might slow mowing production. AT most courses, its a matter of degrees, not a black and white issue.
The opinions of a course might suffer in the eyes of anyone who simply "must" have certain features that challenge tour pros,which was the original point of Pat's thread. However, those courses might suffer more from poor maintenance while the pros never show up, and while not achieving any particular architectural distinction because of their role as a muni or whatever. Some course designs are meant to be golf factories, and the judgement of whether they are a successful design resides in how they stand up and move play through, not how their subtle gca features would challenge Tiger if he showed up.
I am not conceding that such a course must suffer architecturally though, as there are so many ways to skin a cat in "quality design features" and gca's simply pick ones that might be more maintenance friendly, rather than pet features, which if chosen too often, would stamp a gca as repetitive anyway. I really disagree with your statement that anything in design is "as simple as that." Its not.
I didn't mean to characterize your comments as crazy ass, just being flippant about the fact that about 0.0001% of golfers care about gca features. Many more would view severe green contours as a design impediment to their score. As Jack Nicklaus says (and I think he speaks for the typical view of good to great players - "I don't think a golf course ought to ever hurt the golfer." Pat, you and I wouldn't agree, but that is an opinion to consider.
BTW, we used to talk in LA studios about the concept of "pure design" - what you would do with a project if given no real world constraints. Those fantasy projects rarely exist in the real world, and even the top end ones have at least some consideration to costs, so there really isn't such a thing as pure design. Golf courses must function for their owners in drainage, soil structure, etc. to be good design.
When I spoke of Mother Nature, my comments had nothing to do with mimicking nature in contouring or shaping, which is often desireable. I was referring to getting the turf on the most highly used and manicured area of a golf course the air movement, sunlight, moisture and lack of compaction it needs to grow grass. If any of those are lacking, grass won't grow well. Period. Once again, my experience is that dramatic contours - especially those on green edges where moisture wicking (and USGA greens cause this, but plastic barriers between sand and native soil help prevent it) and where traffic is heavy (like natural entrance points) combine to put too much stress on a turf.
If I was going to do a dramatic contour, I would be careful to put it away from major traffic areas for practical reasons, but perhaps not eliminate it altogether. As Lou Duran will attest, my green contours are not flat as Pat originally suggested. From memory, I think they are on par with RC.
Dave, I guess I don't know what you know about anything. But, I do know what I know about building and maintaining golf courses, and I do figure that in my designs. What else can I say?