Your story doesn't drive clicks though...

Might be. It's indeed hard to tell by the picture, but the user seems to knows the place so I don't know. What seems about right is the title is misleading so I'm going to change it.

I have experienced something really similar. Not a detour, but, well…

In early 2019 (or maybe late 2018), whenever I used google maps and the route took me over on a certain stretch road, it would announce the location of an Auto Zone regardless of bearing on the route.
It was just a straight section of road with no confusing areas that needed any clarification. Yet the navigation voice would announce “In a quarter mile, continue past the Auto Zone” followed by “Continue past the Auto Zone on the right.” (Or left.)

It was so jarring and offensive that I also wanted to stop using Google Maps.

Nope, but I did move from Waze to Google Maps and now settled on Apple Maps because of increasing enshittification and ad bloat.

I tried OsmAnd, but sometimes when I try to set a course I get a message that the destination is not reachable... And honestly, the pathfinding is not great on those. I hate to like Maps' algorithm, but I do think it's way better than the alternatives.

The one big draw of Google maps for me is the real-time traffic info. I don't think that anything else had the ability to gather the same amount of info (except maybe Apple?)

I like osmand for off-grid motorcycle type stuff but I've found it to be somewhat useless for final mile navigation especially ironically in the city. I still use it as it's awesome and allows pre-planned offline routes but I also still use gmaps as well. When I drove trucks for a living I found that the Garmin (truck specific but buy what you need) GPS to be quite amazing and will probably buy one of those for my car someday.

I bet they can, and are.

Given enough money, they’ll do anything

Have you tried google search lately? It’s become borderline retarded.

I'd give a hand for your optimism..

I've noticed Waze (owned by Google) sometimes suggests a route I don't feel like (eg I'm on the highway and not in a rush so I don't feel like taking an exit Waze suggests), but when I ignore it and it recalculates, the estimated time goes down.

On the one hand, I know that it has to explore the alternative routes from time to time to know which ones are fastest and that if it's directing a sufficient portion of the overall flow, it has to use multiple routes or else any single route it suggests will become bogged down with too much traffic, but I gotta wonder if there's other motivations, especially when it's a highway exit.

If they can't monetize, they drop. In business terms that makes sense. No profit? Stop the bleeding.

In a wider sense though, Google has done a tremendous job at showing me I can't rely on them for almost anything. I've begun moving email, search, browser, cloud storage... Within a few months Android Auto will be the only thing I can't undo, except to use my car's nav. Maybe I'll do that too.

What makes you think non-sponsored routes will even be available then?

My personal Google Maps conspiracy is that when I need to take a turn, Maps on Android Auto will say "take right at xyz street" (paraphrased) but if there happens to be a Jack In The Box at the intersection, the maps will always call it out – "take a left after the Jack In The Box" (paraphrased).

I've never heard it namedrop any other business like that.

Apple Maps used to be absolute rubbish but it’s extremely excellent now. It even tells ya when there’s a speed trap up ahead, and it’s been correct 75% of the time for me.

I've been waiting for the "Avoid tolls" option to pop out of existence one day with no public explanation.