Jim Engh provides this feeling a lot. In his own words he's "a gatherer".
Matthew, The one question I have about your friends criticism is; When the ball rolls away from the hole, does the sadness associated, affect his opinion of the hole and/or course?
If so, that's an evaluation of architecture based purely on the subjectivity of how one plays. Is that really a good evaluation?
If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone complain about hitting a perfect shot, only to find it in a less than ideal shot...
How can a shot be perfect if it's final resting place is somewhere the golfer didn't want?
On the other side of the coin there's the anticipation of waiting to find out the result, when the golfer is blind to the visual of the result. A good mix is the ideal, IMO. Repeated anything, save for variety, can't be that great. Can it?