You have a valid question about whether or not map data should be backed up locally. But the answer in practice, as the author pointed out, is no. It takes ti

You have a valid question about whether or not map data should be backed up locally. But the answer in practice, as the author pointed out, is no. It takes time, which isn't fun to spend, and as you pointed out, potentially money. ($10 isn't a lot until you divide it by the dollar value of what you're getting, namely virtually nothing in the case of map tile backup.) Why back up? Peace of mind for when your phone dies, is the reason. Backing up map tiles, while marginally useful on a restore, becomes not worth the time spent because there is no peace of mind benefit--the map tiles are already backed up. All the user experiences is that the sync is taking forever.