Gentlemen - I started this post yesterday because over the past decade I've gone back & forth in my own mind about ranking PV and Shinny. Allow me now to articulate my reasoning for choosing Shinny as #1 and to comment on all the excellent posts today on this thread.
First off, I find the " Let's not rank the very top courses against each other " argument to be unrealistic idealism, since they ARE ranked by numerous raters for numerous lists and always will be. Secondly, I personally have thought for years that PV and Shinny were a cut above the rest of the top ten - for many of the reasons articulated by you today. The two are to me the greatest and purest tests of golf in the USA.
Mind you, this doesn't keep me from saying that there's no place in the world I'd rather be that on the grounds of the NGLA (which I'm sure many say about Cypress and Augusta, among others). But none of these have quite the hole- by- hole pure shotmaking tests, IMO, that PV and Shinny possess.
Over the past decade or so, I've come to believe that Shinny has passed PV for the following reasons. TEPaul articulated one of these perfectly. PV can play easier than it looks, while Shinny tends to play harder than it looks. Another reason is the triangular nature of the nines, which makes one play the wind from every angle several times during the round and use every club in the bag from often sloping fairway lies. The bump & run game is vastly more in play at Shinny, and to me that is a necessary ingredient to real greatness. Chas. Stevenson, the Green Chmn., has opened the course dramatically through a decade of tree removal, and so sight lines are all open, and the wind runs freely through the course. Mark Michaud, the Greenskeeper brought from Pebble, has the course in immaculate condition. Wayne Morrison articulated another reason. It's more of a a course for all ages and skill levels than PV.
Finally, great holes are better when viewed many at the same time, IMO. That is vastly more the case at Shinny then at PV. The sweeping view of 1,9,18,17,16 & 14 from the clubhouse hill is an architectural feast. My preference has always been for open vistas for that reason and also because of the conviviality in seeing so many groups on the course while one is playing.
For years I've felt that holes 1-7 are warm-ups for 8-18, which are the greatest collection of 11 architectural diamonds in a row I've ever seen. I find Shinny to be the hardest FAIR test of golf there is. So there you have it from my point of view. PV should be replaced at the top by Shinny, IMO.