@Tom--without asking you to breach any confidences, I'd love to hear some examples of this at both ends of the spectrum.
What were some wild/unusual ideas you abandoned due to discouragement from owners/developers?
What were other ideas that met resistance but made it through to the final product?
Well it would be pretty impossible to answer your first question without "breaching confidences" and I don't particularly want to do that.
One that I have mentioned previously was the wild par-3 hanging off the cliff at Cape Kidnappers below where the current 13th hole resides. [Way below!] Actually in that case the client was pretty encouraging for a long time, but we sort of talked ourselves out of it over the course of building the rest of the holes, and in hindsight I think that was the better choice.
Another that I have not mentioned is that a few years ago I was signed up to build the new par-3 course at Bandon and the Mulligan course at Ballyneal, at the same time, and my marching orders for the guys at Ballyneal was to build "all of the holes that Mr. Keiser will not let us build." We wound up not doing the latter project at all after years of delays and us getting so busy, but I'm happy we got to do the one we did, with no restrictions.
Some examples of holes that met resistance but made it through to the final product:
the 17th at Stonewall (Old) - it took years for them to let me do what I intended
the 4th at Lost Dunes
the 9th and 17th at Pacific Dunes
the 9th at Tumble Creek - they wanted that fairway for housing
the 19th at Stone Eagle - after I couldn't convince them to make it the 1st
the 18th at Old Macdonald
the 11th at The National (Gunnamatta) - they really resisted the long par-3 because it was impossible to make it play equally well for women members
the 9th at Sedge Valley
I thought the 8th hole at Pinehurst #10 was going to meet resistance, but it turned out that the client loved it.