Things work best imo if we define "close range" (intentionally not using the term "green") as a considerably larger distance than either of the circles for most players.
Well, perhaps we come here to the crux of the issue. It occurs to me that at the core of the debate is the question of the difference between how a hole is designed to be played vs. what score people typically take on it.
I'd submit that it's rare that a design on a hole doesn't include the idea of a specific number of shots that get you to C1. You might also design "safe" plays into the hole, but I'd submit that, for a given skill level, the design almost never fails to give a designed line, or set of lines, to C1.
When this design element fails we tend to either identify the hole as poorly designed, or say that a player or shot "breaks" the hole.
When we look at a description of a hole, step into the tee box, we expect par to indicate the design of the hole. This holds true for all skill levels. In other words, a 1000 rated player playing a white level course/tee box has access to lines that weren't designed into the hole for 900 rated players, but the par doesn't change.
Now, when viewed through the lens of tournament disc golf, one is going to say that the par should change if the MPO field is going to be playing that hole. That's all well and good. But saying that par should be set based on statistical median for a certain rating seems wrong headed when we are talking about setting par in general.
For 99.999% of play, that's not what par communicates. It communicates the designed play from that tee box. That's what goes on the tee signs on the course. That's what goes on the DGCR course page.
if you have an island hole on your course, it won't matter that the expected score on it is a 4 (because it's a very hard landing area to stick). That's not what players expect the tee sign to communicate.
If you have a hole that has thick rough such that close range shots (rather than shots that get to the circle) don't typically net you a par, players don't expect this to be communicated by the par on the tee sign.
If you have a basket that's a putter shot away in a wide open park, players don't expect that to be communicated by the par.
How hard or easy it is to execute the designed line isn't the useful thing when you step onto the tee box. The designed play is what you need.
Sure, once you play the course many times you will start to get a sense of holes that you typically make 2 on (easy holes) and holes that you typically take a 4 on (hard holes), but you don't need par to know that. You already know the course. The "birdie" or "bogey" tag applied to this is scoring convenience at this point.
