as you noted, CA courses (likely some members here) likely dont work for avoiding crowds
i recall detailed golf discussion here, but clearly relatively few golfers especially recently

good details on perspective - seems laucala, mukul, etc are only great among hotel courses

aria casino presumably better than mgm, mirage, mandalay. bellagio does have pool villas
but definitely look for / at rentals (combined with entry mgm room) for example >
ascaya.com
google.com/search?q=Ascaya