Sometimes it's worth skipping the new software entirely. I think my old iPhone 3G could have been the last phone running iOS3 when I finally upgraded to the 4S. I refused to "upgrade" an iPhone 3G to iOS4 and burden the phone with an OS that the hardware couldn't handle.
As far as the article goes, I wonder why Engadget didn't list the new maps as a con. Certainly sounds like one, even in their own words.
You won't be able to designate that as your "default" Maps app though, right? So if there's an address in another app, you can't just tap on it to go straight to the Google Maps app.
With Chrome on iOS, Google might have some wiggle room. For instance, in the G+ app, if you try to open a link in a browser, you get the option to open in either Safari or Chrome. Maybe they can do something similar for Maps?
I know that doesn't really solve the issue for other apps, but I bet a good amount of address-clicking comes from the browser.
As far as the article goes, I wonder why Engadget didn't list the new maps as a con. Certainly sounds like one, even in their own words.