Hi Mike,
I think that you may be more speaking about density of tall grass/prairie grass.
My only knock on Prairie Dunes, which is a GREAT golf course, was that many areas of native grass were so thick that finding a ball was very unlikely. That being said, it's plenty wide.
Courses like Ballyneal, Sand Hills, and many of the courses overseas have much thinner native grass, so that ball-hunting is short-lived, and often your lie is good enough that you are tempted to try something you shouldn't...which is perfect strategy in my mind...half or 3/4 shot penalties.
Of course native grass thickness varies from course to course and area to area, so it takes real management to get it right.
If you are truly blocked by trees, there is rarely an option other than sideways. That's a full-shot penalty. Sahalee is beautiful in its own way, but if you are well offline you have no options.
I play at a century+ old parkland course in Mass., and I'm trying to keep us on track (with many others) for less trees and more native grass (which we are doing slowly!), but the native is a tough sell when it's planted and very thick for the first couple years before it matures. As much as you try to keep it to out-of-play areas, golf balls will find it!