Good post but I disagree with your statement that a phone can't achieve the same results in urban areas as a dedicated GPS and it makes me think you haven't been following this thread at all or read over it.

Online and offline I use my phone for this constantly without failure.

In the Backcountry it's brilliant with the cartography as you described. Now with dedicated GPS having similar hardware as currently used in smartphones the only value would the maps that you suggested. But this was never great on dedicated units to begin with. With the introduction of GPS in mass market devices like the smartphone development in alternatives has skyrocketed to the point that is no longer the case.

There seem to be 2 different camps that argue against the smartphone as a replacement of a dedicated GPS. One saying it's no good in the backcountry with cartography, the other saying it is but it sucks with road navigation and turn turn. So the Garmin crowd can't seem to agree on its use and strong points.
Both arguments have been extensively covered and countered.
Hardware concerns have also been addressed.
It seems, by the recurring criticisms, that the valid responses to those criticisms are being ignored. Rather than keeping going with the same old invalid or discounted arguments, it may be more constructive to ask how a certain requirement could be achieved without a dedicated GPS. There are plenty of threads discussing what can be done with one. This one is or has become about doing it with something that you already have and use daily.

I find the criticism of the OP becoming increasingly offensive myself as it's moving towards calls for the OP to back off from his own thread which he had been keeping updated and factual, of which there have been positive responses. What's that all about. If ur would be misleading BS would be one thing. But this isn't. If you don't like it don't look at it.

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com