It's just one thread in thousands, but I'm enjoying the detailed, varied discussion. As I opened this thread, I've been trying to have this talk for the last two years, directly using HarbourTown as a subject, because I see it pulls out nuances of congealed opinion like taffy. As stated, I've never played it, but I have never had to play it to realize that you can't be so quick to call for tree-genocide, or dismiss flat ground, or sniff at manufactured, imposed features or fail to appreciate the validity of "you miss-you're screwed" out of their context...
It would (and may still) bear other threads but I hope that the thread casts in full relief to most of you what it does to me; that too often we talk about the wrong things, about the wrong courses, with too much federal conclusion for the entirety of GCA, for the game, for the people who play it. And in doing so, only highlight and rank good golf, good GCA as "most absence of imperfection," when its variety (as MF said) and the elite challenge (as PB said) and design's historical merit (as many including TD said) render "perfection" moot (or at least inscrutable) even at Cypress, PV or RM... and as matter for the vibrancy of the game, Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson winning a major later this year will boost golf more than a clarion call to arms over mowing lines and tournament-based disfigurement of original design intents.
There's a spectacular Top 200 Met course, from a prolific legendary designer.... that I hate; but it is a marvel. It tips out the greens past 13, has arduous hills, tee to green trails, rarely permits carts as a cultural statement; but it is a marvel. Only the finest players can handle it (even its CC flight of Cary Grant-like jobless young gentleman, who do little but golf, don't often sniff par in the qualifier); but it is a marvel. It has ridiculous forced carries, lost ball fescue, and so many tees that I suppose the course could nearly be played in all four directions of the compass; but it is a marvel. Its original building and current maintenance costs are like like from NASA; construction was nearly an environmental felony in its time and its club environment is now (perhaps always?) the most sickeningly curated boujy aesthetic straight from the pages of Cigar Aficionado; but it is a marvel. The course is never left alone..re-grassing, new bunkers, new tees, greens grown out, trees go down, others go up (some re-mediated after going down) new putting green, new range, new short game area... but it is still a marvel.
And still with all its faults and all its marvel, I think you be hard pressed to say IT is not worth a visit (for any of the reasons you like playing and seeing courses) before Pine Valley. If you had to line up both courses shot for shot, view for view, foot step for foot step, cost for cost... they are both quite amazing designs in their own right.