It's funny you would make a dichotomy between the "old guard" and the "hipsters", and blame the latter for the problems of the new Google Maps. If there's anyone on Earth who I can name as part of the "old guard" of online mapping, it's Bernhard Seefeld, who invented draggable tiled online maps when he launched map.search.ch in 2004. (Google Maps was launched in 2005.) For the last few years he's been working as the product management director for the new Google Maps.
If I had to come up with a reason why the new Google Maps feels worse in many ways, my guess would be second-system syndrome.
If I had to come up with a reason why the new Google Maps feels worse in many ways, my guess would be second-system syndrome.