Dan Kelly,
I think you feel that way because, historically, your only experience, all of our experiences, have been with courses with multiple tees.
But, in reality, do you play the black tees one day, the women's tees the next and the member's tees the next.
I don't.
I generally play the same tees, day in and day out.
I do confess to moving to the back tees for a few reasons.
To eliminate intimidation when playing a long course
To force myself to execute shots with longer clubs.
To force myself to be more accurate but just as long with my driver.
I usually engage in that exercise late in the afternoon after hitting balls for a half an hour.
I do NOT engage in that exercise in the spring as the course is clearly too long for me.
I think what you and many others are hung up on is the concept that the golf course is static every day, when that wouldn't be the case. The golf course would change every day. While it might be or probably would be almost the same overall length, each hole would be of differing lengths from previous days, ergo plenty of variety. Tell me, how much variety you see when playing the same color tee set every day ? Very little from my observations. Most of the variety comes from hole location, wind and weather and NOT tee movement.
What's wrong with playing a hole that's 440 one day and 390 another ?
Same green, same bunkers, but a different tee, albeit ONLY ONE TEE.