I've wondered this for a long time about renovated courses. I always think about the guy who had the same hammer for 50 years - he only replaced 3 heads and 4 handles.....
But I look at golf courses differently and use cars as an analogy. There is a company in CA that is "restoring" old Porsches to better than new - they redo everything, however, I still identify it as a Porsche as the original bones/lines/body shell/engine block is there while the rest has been modified/upgraded. So if it were a golf course, the obvious identity is the same (the routing, the basic shapes etc), the tweaked body is the new bunkering/aesthetics and the upgraded engine the new mechanicals (greens mixes, subair, drainage, etc) added underneath.
On the flip side, a replica is just that, an homage to the real thing on a different setting.
ANGC will always be ANGC and for me a MacKenzie in name and spirit as someone from the 30s could still identify it even through the changes.