Personally, I find a lot of nuance can be lost when just blindly following a route that an app recommends to me. This is particularly true when there are emerging delays on the tube and you need to figure out an alternate route, the time it takes until your app realises it needs to give you a different route is very annoying and a map allowing you to quickly figure out a different journey is great.
I also find that apps have very different idea to me in terms of my willingness to walk instead of bus/tube especially during changes. For instance, it’s often easier to walk from Liverpool Street to Moorgate for the northern line (say if you’re going to London Bridge) than it is to tube it to Bank or Moorgate. Until fairly recently, apps always told you to take the tube. I think this only changed because Liverpool Street and Moorgate are now properly connected via Elizabeth line.
Also when lines share tracks, looking at a map can often show you that you can use a different, quieter line for most of your journey then change at the last minute. For instance, when travelling west on Hammersmith and City from the city, it’s often advisable to take the quieter Metropolitan line for a while then change to the H&C you need when the two lines diverge.
Obviously for most people this doesn’t matter, but I’d maintain that maps of all kinds provide a valuable understanding of the network and allow people to make smarter decisions.
Every time I take the subway or train I look at the physical maps in the cars. I can double-check the connections, plus periodically look at it to know how far away I am.
And if I’m in a foreign country, I don’t want to waste precious phone battery and data navigating some app which may or may not work correctly.
