Shane,
"once"?
I beginning to think gca is a bit like grade-school geometry: most of us already knew what a right-angle triangle looked like, but we were then taught the term, and a bit about its deeper implications. The ones who went on to become mathemeticians loved the subject and dug deep into those implications; the rest of us just remember the right-angle triangle, and can still spot one when we see it -- on those occasions when we think it's important enough to look for in the first place.
Which is to say, I think most who play the game with any interest at all can see at least a part of what's happening out there, at least in a general sense, and to the degree that it's relevant to them. There is, I think, a "selection process" going on for most players all the time, i.e. a partly conscious-partly unconcious choice of what features to even notice, let alone focus on; and this choice has much to do with their level of skill, or imagined skill. A looming fairway bunker draws almost everyone's attention, and with just cause; a very cleverly and strategically-contoured green might go un-noticed by the poorer player, who is simply hoping to get the ball on the putting surface in something close to regulation.
I worked on a golf course when I was 17, the kind that would let a newcomer like me cut the greens and the hole locations. I had rarely played golf before, and I didn't know the slightest bit about gca, at least consciously. But I could watch the play of others day after day, and I realized pretty quickly that the fairway bunker on the left side meant that players would tend to hit their drives to the right side of that fairway...and that therefore a pin placement on the right side of the green would make for a more difficult approach shot, especially if there was a greenside bunker on that side.
I'm sure I missed many, many nuances of the design (and that I still do). But I think I could see even then -- as most everyone can -- its basic and fundamental aspects, especially as it applied to my particular game.
I also think the better players do know and see more of the design features and strategies, if for no other reason than that they HAVE to; their game brings those features into play.
Peter