The current market for architects instead puts an emphasis on the technical, especially the technical as it relates to conditioning as conditions drive the bus anymore.
I believe the artist's approach, the willingness to live with the consequences, applies to the technical side as well as most all the technical processes we use nowadays create constraints that water down the art. Long story short, its the people that matter more than the standardized processes of the modern era, but that is not the contemporary approach to quality control, system management, or golf creation in many cases.
What are all these technical things you speak of? I'll admit to being a bit of a Luddite in such matters, but it hasn't seemed to hurt me much in my career -- indeed, as you suggest, maybe it's helped?
Maybe the word technical is not exactly correct, but whether it is that or construction process, I think it drives a lot of the art.
Sand capping - I don't know how many times you've sand capped, probably not many because of your drive to work on good sites with good soil, but my observation is that some in the business approach sand capping as a requirement on anything but ideal soil resulting in much more material hauling, more haul roads, more site disruption, more drainage, and almost no micro contouring. Contractors love sand capping because of the added budget it requires and it is so easy to get the slicked off finish so many love.
Irrigation - the thinking that the entire golf course must have a highly efficient and uniform application of water, all done under the code word of "control". Why, in the far north or the rainy SE does the outer roughs require the same irrigation as the center lines?
Drainage - focus on engineering storm drainage and use of basins instead of the more artistic use of open ditches and surface drainage.
Top soil management - maybe this ties into sand capping, but if you want to see a major golf contractor furrow his brow, tell him you want to do a "top soil" job. The "modern" approach to top soil management seems to be that you can destroy it and then easily remediate it with some amendments. I don't think it is that easy in most soils.
Standardized methods of construction - USGA putting greens recommendations are just that, a recommendation. I do believe it is important to understand the principles behind these recommendations, but I also believe we should use available technology to adapt construction and maintenance techniques to make use of local materials. A putting green is a turf system and understanding how that system needs to function is more important than using the same recipe across the entire world.
My point is I believe there are creative ways to solve all these issues that not only may result in a more artistic golf course, but one that costs less to build and maintain.. The question is, when you create a "system" like a sand capped fairway over a compacted subgrade with herringbone drainage, have you created a system that is longer lasting and less expensive to maintain, than if you had built that same fairway on a clay loam, protected the top soil, and created artistic surface drainage? I think the sand cap is viewed as easier to maintain, but is the extra resources required worth it and what are the artistic trade offs? I think that is the question to be asked with each item.