Try logging in. The results may surprise you. If you use Chrome signed-in on your computer it will remember your recent map searches from your computer and pop them up first on your phone. Pretty useful feature if you ask me, and it will get rid of "the big nag screen"

I'm absolutely certain it will be pretty nifty. However, once i have willingly decided not to do a login ( i don't use gmail or Chrome ) it should just not feel the need to shove that to my face everytime. A first time setup prompt is all that is needed and once you say no it should tell you " ok, you're missing out but in case you do feel like trying it out - it's in settings->log into account".

Since Apple Maps works perfectly fine for my area ( yes, i'm aware there's a world outside the Bay Area where Apple Maps is horrible), the constant nag for a login is enough to for me to stop using it. It is an awesome app though.

I find that rather annoying too. Every other click it seems to be asking me to login to my Google account. Kind of makes me wonder why they are so insistent.. Good way to get data for local ads?

The more data they can associate with a given user the better.