Agreed, I can navigate to anywhere in my town without an issue, I haven't used a GPS to navigate within town in years (basically, since I moved here). When I first moved here I used GPS to get around because I moved here by myself and had never been here before. If I "wasn't learning" when using the GPS then I'd still need it to get around, but I found I only really needed it for a week or so.

Of course, many people use GPS when they don't care about learning how to get somewhere, they just wanna get there, thus the use case is different.

To play devils advocate, have you ever tried pulling out a map, planning your route, and then driving it?

I'm going to assume not based on your response since you'd likely learn the route after 1 or occasionally 2 times of doing that.

I say that because I work in an area where GPS directions are usually useless and often have to find my way to a new location based on directions, or by planning my route ahead of time. It works really well.

I didn't really, because I can't remember half the route that way. Usually not even a few turns, and I frequently zone out with no idea where I am. Google Maps were a lifesaver for me.

How many turns / complexity is there’s though? Arguably 2 miles in London is harder than 100 miles in Arkansas due to the sheer cognitive load.

That's true. I am talking about routes with around 20-30 turns (based on Gmaps report).