GPS adventures

We have had a bunch of interesting driving experiences since we got our car just over a year ago.  Gratefully, none of them have been of the breaking down type that we had with the other car... but I won't get into that now.  Now, I am talking about the interesting sites we have seen when following google map directions.  So- my question here is:
Is it worth it?
Using google maps/gps gets us off the beaten path, that can be good. We have seen some sweet scenery and interesting pueblos, definitely good. But smaller roads are usually up kept badly and have lots of curves and slow vehicles, which makes our driving time even longer, that's not so great.  Plus, I have anxiety when it comes to being on the wrong road, I think its a mix of guilt about making a mistake and dragging others into it and a instinctive desire to find the shortest route.  Anxiety is not so great.
I think my conclusion is that, yes, it is worth it.  Writing this forced me to lay it all out and I think the pros out weigh the cons, especially when our goal when buying the car was to "just get in a drive, see what we find." 
It keeps us grounded- knowing what the real mexico is, a place where lots of people still live very simple lives. Towns not built by architects but the people themselves. Neighbors talking in the street seemingly oblivious to the fact that their tiendita is on a stretch of interstate highway but then they give it away that they do know it by smirking at the gringa in the passenger side of the obviously out of place car.
Last week we had just these kinds of experiences.  Heading to the beach we passed through a tiny town that had some pretty bad roads.  It was Sunday and the street was full of women dressed in traditional pleated skirts and petifores, bling-ed out with lots of sparkles, their long black braids woven with and  tied up with a long ribbon to match.  Not to mention all the green mountains and valleys and farmland and lakes and train tracks that wound back and forth on either side of the highway, so beautiful!
On the way home from the beach, I thought Maps was taking us the same way, but it took us on a little detour.  We still saw the green, and takes, and train and I think we saw a different road in the bad road shanty town.  But after that, we got sent down an even smaller two lane highway.  The only thing on this road was a town that we had to pass through.  This town was really interesting because i had heard the news coming out of Michoacan a couple years back, news about towns that had taken self control of their local government.  So, this was a town that has thrown off local government and created their own security force.  The security force was obvious when we saw the guard houses set up on the highway entering and leaving the town.  while driving through the town, we saw home made banners announcing numbered "fogatas" every block or so. One said "fogata 1 activa" all were weathered, torn, and prominently displayed.  The police uniforms do not have the Mexican flag on the shoulder and instead are proudly announcing that their authority comes from the people.  In fact all throughout the state we saw evidence of this, a truck labeled patrulla ciudiana , a police station called fuerza popular.  I saw a couple murals talking about staying strong for "the cause" and how the government does not help them.  Anyway, when we got home I had to do some research.  Below are two links that I thought were pretty interesting.
cheran article, video is subtitled in English
another cheran article, scroll down about halfway to find the 4-5 paragraphs.
So, what do you think? Is google maps worth it?