Rob, we're in the minority in a sense. But in another sense we're not. Stay with me here:
Retail golfers (a term I use with no disrespect, because their opinion ultimately carries a huge amount of worth) are certainly impressed by excellent course conditioning. They also enjoy heroic and exciting shots, big elevation changes, framing bunkers, and scoring well. Ask them to analyze a design, and they talk about memorable features, difficulty, fairness, and every other buzzword that has been given to them by their buddies, armchair critics, golf magazines, and the PGA.
However...
Send those same players you played with in your event around that same course every week for a year, and you'll notice that the course conditioning doesn't matter so much anymore. If the course doesn't have design merit, they'll know it. They may not be able to articulate it, but their interest in playing it over and over and over will wane. They'll still call it a good course, but they won't be excited by it anymore. On the other hand, perhaps it has more merit than you realized in your play. If it does, they'll be finding new ways to play holes and learning something every time out and relishing the challenges presented. They may still attribute it to conditioning, because that's what they can see, but their subconscious has recognized a more interesting product.
I watched Field of Dreams a few nights ago, so forgive me if I sound like James Earl Jones insisting that "People will come, Rob." But even the retail golfer recognizes good design and will be excited to play a well-designed course over and over assuming that conditions are reasonably decent and the value is one he can afford and justify. Of course, well-designed courses aren't always the ones we identify from our lofty position in the ivory tower of GCA either.
For the record, I've been pleasantly surprised by the two Palmer courses I've played and would heartily recommend both to anyone nearby, though I'm told that they're among his best work. And Hoover is right. I've been doing some informal polling lately and all my data so far suggests that golfers prefer firm and fast to soft and green by a 4:1 margin. There' s a tipping point - no one wants to play on dirt or crappy turf - but a healthy firm fast sward beats a healthy soft green sward.