Personally haven't had any issues so far with it leading me places, where it falls flat on its face though is finding me shops and businesses.
Right, and the big problem is that most of these shops and businesses have expended great effort getting their data correct in Google, but not necessarily other POI databases.
I work with a charity (a summer camp) I recently set up our location as a "place" with Google. I had to register our business, set up an account, and verify the location by having Google send us a USPS postcard.
Then once our location was verified and my Google Places account was enabled, I wrote up descriptions, keywords, inserted photos, videos, information about our specials, website, etc. Great! Now anyone can search for our company name on Google Maps and find all this stuff and get directions.
... except now, all iPhone and iPad users who search for our name get... nothing. Now I have to start all over again.
Repeat for gazillions of small businesses across the globe and you see why results aren't accurate and people aren't happy.