Greg,
I started designing my routings from the back tees years ago when I found that real estate developers starting encroaching on my "dot" marking the center of the tee. When using the middle tee, the back often dissapears. Even on conventional sites, many tees have to back up to a property line, so it makes sense to start from the back tee.
As a feature designer, I try to consider all tees, especially when looking at forced carries, where I may placed them farther forward. If its a layup hole, I may keep them closer together, so the short tee players may still hit a driver. Bunker placement works off tee locations, although Jeremy's random bunkers to create many landing areas is intriguing, if costly. If in housing, there may be a safety benefit in clustering tee shots to one wider area.
As a golfer, the back tees are merely a rumor, although last Sunday, Dan Kelly preferred to play the back tees at Giant's Ridge, and I obliged. Oddly, my score didn't really go up all that much, even hitting longer clubs in. It was still the two foot putts that got me.