Wouldn't it create traffic problems if they start routing everyone through side streets around the main intersections?

Where I live, Google maps like to suggest this one comically evil route that takes you across 3 lanes of traffic, through a "roundabout" then across the 3 lanes of opposing traffic. On a highway. While yes, the "roundabout" does exist, its there for only two reasons: for emergency vehicles to idle in and for routing traffic when the segment of highway beyond is closed.

Published data is a catch-22. Dangerous intersections may look worse than other options simply due to the fact that they're more heavily used. In my area, I have 3 different options to get to the same location:

1. Take the most western-route to a traffic light, make a right, and then another right into the destination.

2. Take a more slightly eastern single-lane back road that puts me right out at the destination with still an immediate right onto the main road before getting there (danger factor in the single-lane aspect)

3. Take the most eastern route, make an unprotected left turn onto the main highway (often having to use the center median lane as a buffer for space), and then make another unprotected left into the destination.

Option 1 would show the most published crash data since it's a traffic-light intersection and is most busy by default, while I'd argue that it's also still the safest.

Yup. Google tries to get me to make a left turn from a stop sign across 4 lanes of main street suburban traffic rather than waiting at the traffic light one block north - a light that that also backs traffic up past the stop sign when the main street traffic flow stops. I wrote them a couple of times a few years back, but I've learned to ignore the directions.

Maybe it’s easier to contact your municipality about this dangerous abomination.

I imagine the algorithm that Google is using to send you to that route is simply that other users before you that have used that route have progressed quicker than others that used the "safe" one.

To your point, Logan Airport in Boston is a pain to drive to, except there is a freeway that goes directly there. However, Google Maps directions starting north of Boston (Bedford area, for example) will drive you through the industrial port area where roads are not well paved, painted, or marked, all to save 1m of travel time. Apple Maps puts you on the freeway as expected (this was my experience pre-pandemic).

On the flip side, Apple Maps has led me to closed roads and routes that don't actually exist, while Google Maps has never done that.

No one solution will be perfect, as they don't have exactly the same goals.

Google maps have led me to a military use only road. I literally didn't know they existed in my country before :P