I DO believe there is such a thing as unfair fairways.
I played a course last fall (Hunter's Oak, MD Eastern Shore), designed to replicate a links- style course. Nice look and feel, no trees so it played very windy they day I was there. Overall had a lot of fun.
But it's pretty flat on the eastern shore, so they clearly moved a lot of earth to get the desired dunes separation between holes and rolling fairways. One hole in particular (late front 9 -- maybe #5?) was "too rolling". There was no evidence that this fairway would be materially different from the rest, nor was it apparent there was an over-abundance of "roll" in it from the tee.
Got to the fairway to find my ball 50 yards short of "where it should be", off in the left rough. The fairway had no rhyme or reason to it, complete randomness. Hit it ONE INCH left or right / long or short and you get a COMPLETELY different outcome.
Note that I am a BIG FAN of center pot bunkers, and this course had some. But at least I can see them, or know that they're there. But TOTALLY random (and manufactured random, at that) I'm not sure I get.