What has improved at Pebble (or negative changes in the courses above it) to justify a 2-position rise? Did the slightly lower bunker profile on Sand Hills #7 cause it to drop one spot? In what universe was Sheep Ranch ever one of the top 100 courses in the US? The Valley Club is now 58 instead of 49...what happened there (probably nothing)?
I don't see a problem with a course rising or falling with nothing actually changing at the course or the course it swaps with.
It's been 5 years since I played Pebble Beach, but I'd say it's gone down a few points in my mind this year. I've long valued great holes more than I've penalized for indifferent stretches. However, I'm pretty familiar with #2, attended the Open this summer, and saw it pretty much back to normal by mid summer (assuming we're not including the driving range). My visit to Pebble was in October after the Open and you could still see the mowing lines where they had to narrow the fairways. In order to host the best, they had to totally change the course and it still wasn't 100% back months later. #2 was basically the same course summer of '23 and summer of '24 other than some withheld water in May and June. If ranking courses was more than just a daydream exercise for me, I might go through and reconsider other courses and how elastic they are for hosting elite players (not necessarily PGA/majors) vs day to day operation. None of those courses changed, but my perception may have.
Another example would be Banff and Jasper. I played them in 2014 and initially favored Banff slightly (see: better best holes theory above). For many years, I kept swapping them back and forth, reading every piece of literature I could find on them, doing hole-by-hole match plays, etc. Then in 2017 I went to Bandon for the first time, fell in love with Trails, and solidified Jasper ahead of Banff. At that point, I started to value the full collection of holes and the pace of the holes a little more.
Courses may not change, the list of people rating them may not either, but the people themselves can change, and I think that's ok. If I see something that stretches my mind, it usually takes some time to let it sink in and figure out how I really feel without recency bias at play. Throw a rock in the water and it takes awhile for the ripples to play out.