Ok but I'd say your headline isn't supported, i.e. 'There is no way that digital maps are anywhere near as practical, let alone more practical, yet.' - it's pos

Ok but I'd say your headline isn't supported, i.e. 'There is no way that digital maps are anywhere near as practical, let alone more practical, yet.' - it's possible that all of the things you said are true, and that it is still more practical to use a digital map due to the disadvantages of paper maps i.e. fixed scale, inability to restyle or interrogate data on the fly, data currency, etc. And I think the example I gave is pretty compelling - put a dataset like the one I created on your phone, and all you have to worry about is keeping your phone charged in order to have mapping anywhere in the world, or carry a battery charging brick. There's a pretty huge gulf between the inconvenience of having to carry a battery brick versus a truck full of paper maps. The range of activities where the arguments you made hold versus those in which they are not of concern is becoming ever narrower - I'd struggle to think of much beyond recreation/extreme environments/military examples, and these are very much a minority compared to the rest of the digital mapping world. Don't get me wrong, I love paper maps too and have seen some pretty amazing examples - in the atrium of one facility I visited they had a two-storey high printed OS style map that was quite something - but the world has moved on. Perhaps e-ink displays will marry the two back together at some point.