The problem is this site is internally self congratulatory. Highly rated courses are great for those who play them and rate them. And that's fine for the target audience on this site. And of course this thread only contains comments from players on this site (duh). The problem is those who don't like courses where they lose discs are less likely to either rate the courses or rate them low perhaps because they may not want to seem like wimps, poor players or not financially in a good position to afford the loss. I suspect there are many rec players who have silently voted against courses with water losses simply by never going back to play where that occurs.
However, we know how much players hate to lose discs in whatever manner based on the number of lost disc posts, people going out swimming and stomping around to search, and people putting their number on the discs and good samaritans trying to return them. I haven't played ball golf in awhile but I don't recall hearing of an active community for finding and returning someone's golf ball. Of course, if you were required to forfeit your club to the pro shop each time you hit a ball in the drink, you would very quickly see ball golf courses with water hazards "dry up" faster than they are now.
I like to see water on courses, just not positioned aggressively if loss is likely, especially for rec players, even those who try the long tees. There should be a route they can take to avoid the water or at least cross a corner less than 50-60 feet across. Clear, shallow water, creek beds can be ideal as long as players can get to their discs. I look for those options during design but they're not as common as muddy, deeper creeks, some with steep banks.
I think if you go through the 100+ courses I've put in, many which have a 3.5+ rating here, you won't find any where there's a forced crossing where players either can't go around, can't play up to it and have a short carry across on the next throw, doesn't have a forward tee or drop zone you can proceed to and not throw across (Steady Ed - IDGC) or doesn't have water very close behind the pin. I've always been designing in ways where I hope every player wants to come back and play my layouts, especially those for their skill level, as if the financial survival of the course depended on it, even though very few do because there's little expectation of commercial viability in our sport (except in Maine mostly). If a player loses a disc for some reason, I'm hoping it's because of a riskier choice they made and not one I "forced" them to make.
So it's okay to have "water in play," but as a designer, please position it so the thrower optionally decides to take the risk of going in rather than the designer forcing a high risk loss beyond the skill level of even or highest level players who, as we've seen, cannot consistently avoid water penalties on tour courses. If they can't do it, why would you expect lower skilled players to reasonably do better?
