One of the many reasons I enjoy and appreciate playing most of my golf in Scotland much more than in America is that guys like Ron are much fewer and further between. While I've met quite a few golfers who professed to prefer golf at a featureless Spanish resort course to some of the linksland gems of Scotland (simply because of the weather), or were fascinated by gimmicky architecture of the kind seen on "signature holes" in the US, those opinions are rarely stridently voiced. And of course nearly everyone plays competitive golf - to keep a handicap, you have to play in at least three medal competitions per year - so nearly everyone knows and abides by the rules far better than the average American golfer.
I've come to the conclusion that educating the average American golfer about golf course architecture is a fruitless and pointless task. Where education matters is if you're talking about either:
a) a friend who you want to or expect to play golf with going forward on a regular basis, or
b) someone in a position of influence over a golf course you like or play regularly (e.g., a greens committee chairman)
Those battles can desperately matter. Fighting with the Rons of the golfing world? Not so much...
Cheers,
Darren