TEPaul,
It's actually amazing just how close we are to agreeing with each other..but for a few extremely salient details!
I must concede that theories and methods integral to golf course design have changed in the past 150 years since it became an accepted profession. However, I also believe that this change is exactly what will make it better in the long run. Imagine if we had said the same thing about our understanding of the universe. Imagine if we would have resisted change, and simply accepted Ptolemy's notion of an Earth-centered universe. Imagine if Copernicus, Galileo and others would not have stepped up and shown us that math and science had advanced to the extent that our understanding of astronomy, and indeed, our understanding of the world, had fundamentally changed, and we were/are better for it.
Similarly, golf and golf course design has perhaps fundamentally changed. We must never forget the lessons of the past, but we must also accept that this profession is more complex than even we may think, and that the modern designer must be more than just golf course designer; he must also be part engineer, part agronomist, part athlete, part psychologist, and the list surely goes on. He need not be expert in any of these areas (for it is also his responsibility to be humble and ask for advice when necessary), but he should be well versed.
This is why I suggest that lessons about design should sometimes come from well outside design. Citing Max Behr as an authority certainly carries much weight, but an argument is richer and even more convincing when the breadth of that argument is explored, when we can cite outside sources to confirm our suspicions, when we aim for what composer Richard Wagner (and surely all Germans) referred to as "Gesamtkunstwerk, literally translated as the "total work of art," whereby all elements of humanity--sights, sounds, smells, drama, etc.--are synthesized to create a fuller, richer, more worthwhile experience.
In the absence of these outside agencies, golf course design may stagnate, but if/when they are used, then perhaps we will find out that the best in golf course design is yet to be seen!!!
Obviously, I may never convince you, or others of this viewpoint, but, as you state your position, so too will I state mine.