I don't understand why anyone would deliberately put themselves at a serious disadvantage by using sub-par map/browser/etc technology in the hopes of somehow li

I don't understand why anyone would deliberately put themselves at a serious disadvantage by using sub-par map/browser/etc technology in the hopes of somehow limiting Google's ability to gather data. Unless you exist in a vacuum, in the long-run what you're actually doing is failing to take advantage of the data that Google's making accessible to you, at your own expense.