For perspective, the original "Planning and Building the Golf Course" by NGF sometime in the late 1950's or early 60's(not my 1981 re-write) had a statement on short par 4 holes saying "They have no kick" if only a wedge/short iron is left to the green. Clearly, post WWII, and the RTJ related mentality had the idea of any par 4 under 350 yards as undesirable. Probably, many golden age short par 4 holes had now become relatively shorter, not unlike today. As Adam notes, this is only applicable to 1% or so of golfers.
Then, they became trendy, maybe because of Morrish/Weiskoph? Now, perhaps they have become too common through over use?
Certainly, Pete and Alice are of the age where they remember the 1950's thought process. While they have done some reachable par 4 holes, fraught with risk/reward, maybe they just feel they have run their course? Always the iconoclasts, maybe they advocate for something different than "now standard" just because.......
BTW, as it happens, I am now designing a new hole on a total remodel where we can add a fairway pad across a creek, extend a tee to play at 320 or the layup type yardage of 380 (back tees) so it can play either way. Design it to play either way, not unlike how the USGA sets tee markers way up one day. That seems reasonable to me, rather than design one that, as Alice says, is basically meant to be driven and if you don't, well what's wrong with you? LOL