On the other hand I was on the interstate the other day and it told me to get off and take a detour, I ended up avoiding a massive backup. I don't always take the advice, but man I like having the opportunity.

Waze tells me that stuff too. About an hour before I would have arrived at a major accident, it had notified me about a detour onto a parallel highway I should take. As I got closer, it told me to take an earlier exit because the original one was starting to get backed up from people trying to detour. I got off the highway and got back on with only a minute delay in my ETA.

I usually switch between Google Maps and Waze depending on where I'm going and how soon I want to get there. Google Maps if I'm in no hurry and want to take the "normal" way. Waze for if I'm trying to get there sooner (speed trap alerts and shortcuts help) and I'm either somewhat familar with the route or don't care about the stupid shortcuts. Waze has had me cut through neighborhoods and drive down gravel access roads to shave minutes off the travel time. Most of the time it pays off, sometimes you just end up wasting more time at intersections

Same. I ignored it once and got stuck in a traffic jam with construction that was there the week before.

It's just incredible that they don't offer an option to avoid left turns. This is something major freight carriers figured out a decade or more ago.

Interestingly I started using GMaps instead of Waze exactly for this. Waze loves sightseeing and meeting new people on cozy little streets.

This is configurable in Waze at least. There's a "Avoid difficult intersections" option in the Navigation settings.

Waze will take you on the shortest route - every time - even if that means cutting through a suburb taking the least amount of time to get to the destination. GMaps sticks to main roads as much as possible.