Not to sidetrack a thread, but I do think the general intent of most golf shots is to get closer to, or in the hole. Most players would say that having the course take the ball away from the hole at least too often, is probably contrary to the spirit of the game. My favorite quote is from Colt: "In no case should the green be contoured to make the putt run away from the hole like a swine possessed by the devil." (From memory, so it may be a few words off)
Then, we get into the whole issue of restoring greens. While being taken to task for my renovations of some Maxwell courses, I have to ask, did he or any of the old guys ever write that "a bad putt should roll off the green?" I doubt it, and think they intended most of the green to have cup spaces (they wrote about it) so flattening their greens may preserve their design intent as much or more than leaving the contours as is. And of course, that presumes that they haven't changed over the years.
Of course, if David Moriarity reads this, he will argue that just because Ross, et al didn't specifically mention not putting off the green being suitable, it doesn't preclude them from having endorsed the de-greening of putts, and therefore, they wanted putts to roll off the greens, at least before November 1910..........