Which leads again to the "I'm lost and my phone cannot help me without data connectivity" problem that vector based maps could solve. Hence his praise for the feature: In his case this is not just a matter of 3G availability in terms of technical coverage, it's whether 3G is affordable as well.

Both could be solved with "preloading" the phone. So - I dare to say that he knows how to disable that and that's completely unrelated. He doesn't even want to need data roaming to have Google Maps available. You misread the intention of his post.

How exactly will that help me with the whole finding out where I am and where I have to go problem?