Understand, BUT at this point in the game, Apple have to move quickly or people WILL be upset. Most will perceive shortcomings as feature removals. "The last version of the software could do it, why cant this." Most will neither know, nor care, that the underlying map provider has changed. That is the reality, and Apple need to step up and be competitive. They don't have a "couple of years to catch up".
Yeah, from the consumer standpoint this is true. I hope they allow Google to put their Maps app in the app store so people can use the one that they like.